Pokémon: The Future Lies in The Past
by Keith E. Kimball
Summary: Ten years in the future: Pokémon Master Ash Ketchum disappears in a raging hurricane. His friends, Misty Williams and Brock Harrison, brave the terrors of Sternbreak Island to save him only to uncover a terrible secret from Ash's past.


Copyright 2003 Keith Kimball

Approx. 22,479 Word Count

**Keith Kimball**

**E-Mail:  Bdrodman@aol.com**

**Oh, goodness!  I've overslept something fierce!  What time is it?  *Gasp*!  More like, what YEAR is it?  2013?  This can't be, I'm the Narrator, I'd know about something like this!  Oh, wait,…**

**That's right.  Our show's been off the air for years, hasn't it?  Well, well, finally interested in the world of Pokèmon once again, are you?  Hmm…I guess I can let this slide.  After all, as the Narrator, it's my job to show you all a good time.  In print or on the screen!**

**So, after all this time, lots of exciting things must have happened to our heroes…and villains!  Let's just see if we can find what sort of fantastic things are _still happening in the wonderful world…of Pokèmon!!_**

********

**POKèMON:**

**The Future Lies in The Past******

by

Keith E. Kimball

Another bright and sunny day was dawning in Pallet Town.  The small city had grown up some over the years, but was still very much an unspoiled paradise for people and Pokèmon alike.  Outside the house of one Mrs. Delia Ketchum, a very happy Mr. Mime was sweeping away enthusiastically.  The morning chores were tedious, but the look of joy on his mistress' face when she saw all the hard work she wouldn't have to do completed made it all worthwhile to the kindly Pokèmon.

Mimey's chant was broken by the sound of a car approaching.  He peered over the house's short picket fence to spy a large pink Cadillac pulling up to the mailbox.  A thin young man, wearing trendy clothing and a short blue hairdo, stepped out.  Mimey could see other faces in the car, but paid attention to the young man as he checked his map in a moment's confusion.  Finally satisfied that he had the right place after all, the youth stopped staring at the other houses that had cropped up next door over the last few years.  He advanced purposefully up the path toward the door, his map and a unopened letter in his hand.

This was definitely not their usual mailperson, but he didn't seem a threat either.  In fact, Mimey could almost recognize him…But no matter.  With a friendly wave and a grin, Mimey stepped out onto the porch proper.  The young man smiled back in a equally friendly fashion.  Mimey held out a hand for the letter.

"Ah, ah, ah," the youth said in a somewhat snobby, high-pitched voice, "So sorry, my good man.  But this important document can only be given to the lady of the house, if you please..?"

This didn't ruffle the Pokèmon's feathers.  Many delivery people didn't want a Pokèmon's signature for anything.  He just hoped it was actually important enough to wake his mistress at this time or she'd be mad.

The youth watched the Psychic-type creature happily go inside to fetch Mrs. Ketchum herself.  He rocked back and forth on his heels, whistling happily in tune with some Pidgeys in a tree up the street.  He chose to ignore the scratchy voice from his car that yelled, "_Hurry up all ready, Jimmy!  We's gettin' old, out here!_"  Also ignored was the answering feminine tone that said the first speaker should be quiet.

Finally Delia opened the door.  Now into her 40's, her workout routine kept the woman in great shape.  Age lines were starting to form around her eyes, and some grey was starting to creep into her temples.  Nevertheless, she was as bright and cheerful as the youth remembered her when she greeted him with, "Oh, hello!  You're not our regular mailperson.  Is she sick today?"

"I truly wouldn't know, ma'am," he honestly replied, "I'm just here to fulfill a delivery request for a dear old friend of mine."  He handed Delia the bright red envelope.

She thanked him before flipping it over.  Instead of her name, the address was simply to _Mom_ in very familiar handwriting.  "Ash?" she gasped, looking up to question her delivery boy further.  But by this time, the blue-haired man was waving happily as he stepped back into his driver's seat. 

"Wait..!" Delia called out, starting to run down the path.  The car had already started, and she caught a glimpse of a young woman's face peering out the passenger's window.  The red-head looked sympathetic, somehow.  She was so surprised by all this that Delia simply stood there, watching the pink Caddy cruise up the road and out of sight.

"_Mr. Mime?" said the Pokèmon at her elbow._

"It's okay, Mimey," she assured her old friend, "I'm not sure who that was, but he—well, _they—seemed familiar.  Do you know them from someplace?"_

The Pokèmon shook his head, but Delia could see the same slightly confused look she knew must be in her own gaze.

She flipped the envelope back over, tearing it open as she started back to the house.  As she began reading, Delia walked slowly back toward her front door.  By the time she's read half the letter, she'd broken into a jog.  By the time she'd nearly finished reading, she looked up from her run just in time to avoid slamming into the door.  Mimey had to hurry to make it inside behind her.

****

Misty Williams was running too.  Back to the vidphone in her office at the Cerulean City Gym, her address book in hand.  She couldn't believe she'd forgotten his number, her brain must be as scrambled as Psyduck's….

A few of her male protégés stopped to watch her run by appreciatively.  Misty had been a late bloomer, and though she was by no means voluptuous, nobody called her a skinny tomboy anymore either.  She'd also dropped the shorts n' suspenders look for a nice blue blouse, matching jacket, and, _well, some not-so-tight red shorts.  It let her dangle her legs in the gym's pool whenever she felt like it.  Misty didn't like it when her friends reminded her she looked more like her older sisters than ever before._

Finally she returned to her office.  Misty ignored the stunning panoramic window view overlooking her gym's main pool to slam her address book onto her desk.  She started dialing up, catching the plaintive cry of  "_Psy..?" coming from beneath the vidphone's stand._

As the phone rang, Misty reached beneath the stand to scratch Psyduck's head lightly.  "It's okay," she reassured him quietly, "I'm not mad at you, nobody's mad at you, you can come out now…"  Psyduck sheepishly did so.  The Pokèmon just as quickly dashed back under, though, when Misty smacked her palm against the vidphone's side.

"Would you answer!" she growled at the inoffensive machine.

At this prompting, the phone's screen finally filled with the image of Brock Harrison.  Brock had always been a big, strong boy, and years of hard workouts befitting a Gym Leader had only strengthened his frame.  Nowadays, Brock was truly massive, and Misty often saw Brock's hero Master Bruno in her friend's square-jawed face.  Of course, she had never yet truly met his gaze beneath his thick brows….

"Misty!" Brock grinned, giving a self-conscious tug to his little white T-shirt.  He was so close to the screen, she could hardly see anything but his broad, and now decidedly vest-less, shoulders.  "It's been too long!" Brock continued, grinning a bit wolfishly, "Since I've seen somebody as pretty as you!  Do say you're coming to Pewter City Gym soon?  How am I supposed to bear being apart from you this long?"

Misty sighed theatrically, "Yeah, right.  C'mon, not even Brock laid it on that thick."

The Brock onscreen frowned for a second, then grinned.  In a rather high-pitched voice, Brock responded, "I should've known I couldn't fool you, Misty.  You've known both of us for too long."

The figure pulled off her mask to reveal a pretty young face, framed by green hair done up in a familiar pompom style on either side of it.  Duplica winked, her smile even more dazzling than the bright yellow blouse with flowers on it she was wearing. 

Misty grinned at her, "So where is that husband of yours, Duplica?"

"He's over there," she responded, pointing off-screen, "showing off a little for the newest girls in his class and too busy to ANSWER THE PHONE!"  The last was yelled in her hubby's direction; Misty could hear feet rapidly approaching.  

As Duplica backed up to give Brock some room, Misty caught sight of her waist.  And the pronounced round bulge there, filling out her sweat pants.

"Oh!"  Misty lit up, her squeal sending Psyduck back under cover, "Duplica!  Why didn't you tell me?  That's wonderful!  Congratulations!"

By now, Brock was smiling into the phone along with his pregnant wife.  "We should've called everybody," Brock admitted, "I'm sorry, Misty.  There's no excuse for losing touch with friends like that.  Not even those tough gym inspections I've had lately.  What do you say we make it up to you with a visit?  Next week, maybe--?"  Misty didn't have to see his eyes to know Brock meant his apology.  If you were Brock's friend, you were family.  And nothing was more important to Brock than family.  His gym troubles must've been hard, indeed.

Which reminded her of what she'd called for.  Suddenly she regretted calling Brock; this would kill the joy she could easily see shining in the couple's faces at her across the vidphone line…but she didn't know who else to turn to.  Her sisters had been out of action for so long, they'd be no help.

So she gritted her teeth and said, "I'm sorry, Duplica.  I need Brock's help."  Her voice caught, and she forced herself to continue, "_Ash_ needs our help."

"Ash?" the Harrisons chimed at her.  Brock's face grew tight with a familiar look of protectiveness.  Sometimes, his tendency to treat her like a younger sister after all these years was annoying…but she was ever so thankful for it now.  

Misty grabbed the note she'd written earlier, reading to her friends, "Mom, I'm sorry this isn't a longer letter, but it's very important.  Don't believe what you've seen on the news.  It's not that bad.  I've got to do this for myself, and I promise, I'll be back soon.  I'll never disappoint you!  Love, Ash."

Tears were starting to form in Misty's (_ha ha, making her misty-eyed_, she thought) eyes as she finished.  She regained control, adding, "Delia got that hand-delivered to her doorstep today.  She called me in a panic, asking if I knew anything about it.  And I think I do."

Brock looked confused, but Duplica nodded grimly.  "I'm afraid I do, too," she admitted.

Her husband followed Duplica's pointing arm toward the nearest TV screen.  Tuned to the 24-hr news station for the students' education, Brock saw the latest weather reports.  And what he saw made him turn almost as white as his shirt.  "Are you telling me," he asked nobody in particular, "Ash went into that hurricane that's been raging on Sternbreak Island?  Why in the world would he do that, that area's been hammered by the weather for a week!"

"Keep watching," his wife prodded, "They're sure to mention this part soon."

Brock remembered the other half of this oft-repeated story even as the news lady broke in with, "And there have been no further reports of the legendary Pokèmon, Mew, sighted within the last eight hours.  Pokèmon scientists around the world are still debating if the resurgence of activity from this almost-mythical Pokèmon could truly have anything to do with the quickly-named Hurricane Psychic haunting this region.  Pokèmon trainers, however, are in no doubt, and are braving the storm for a chance to catch Mew themselves…"

Brock's cheeks were flushing with rage quickly.  "I don't believe this!  That's not worth the risk!"  The beefy man slammed a ham-hock fist into his palm, adding, "I don't care if he is a Master!  There's no reason to risk life and limb for that!"

"I agree," Misty responded, "But Mew isn't the only reason he's there, Brock."

Duplica looked out from the screen just as curiously as Brock did.  Misty's voice caught anew as she added, "In spite of how confident he tried to sound, Ash sent that letter to Delia because….because… she'd know what it meant if she saw him heading there on the news.  Sternbreak Island is where his father disappeared twenty-three years ago.  Right after Ash was born."  She was starting to lose her composure.  Valiantly, Misty tried to struggle on with, "He couldn't turn down a chance to catch Mew, and there was a hurricane then too…!"  Finally she broke down, cursing herself for her weakness.  She was a grown woman, a Gym Leader, for crying out loud… which Misty was doing onto her sleeve.  Psyduck leaned tenderly on her leg, cooing soft comfort to his mistress.

Brock's jaw was set in a stern line.  "Don't you worry, Misty.  You just stay right there, I'll be over in two flicks of Steelix's tail."  He turned to his normally-bubbly wife, who was staring back hard at him.  "You'll have to take over the Gym for awhile, sweetheart."

Duplica dismissed the idea with the wave of her hand.  "Your brother can do it," she started.

Brock gripped her shoulders firmly, so firmly it hurt.  "You are in no condition to travel into a hurricane," he said calmly.

She looked up.  She seemed the only person in the world able to meet Brock's gaze.  The unspoken message in her gaze, the fear that perhaps Delia might not end up the only widow of Sternbreak Island, was as loud as it was unspoken.  Misty was still too busy trying to pull herself together; Brock could spare a moment to gently stroke his wife's bulging belly.

"I don't disappoint, either.  Where do you think Ash got it from?" he joked.

Through her waning tears, Misty watched the couple share a heartfelt embrace.  As Brock turned, calling his Steelix, she said, "Thank you," from the very bottom of her soul.

Duplica smiled back, almost her old self, and added, "Ash is our old buddy, too.  Now, ALL of you come back, okay?  I won't be able to live with myself if you don't, and…I'll have to haunt you!"

The mental image of a Haunter with big green pompom hair made Misty laugh.  "Deal!" she cried.

She noticed with warm relief that Brock was now in such a hurry, he'd ordered Steelix to use Dig to get to Cerulean Gym…right through the concrete floor of his own gym.  It was no trouble for the enormous diamond snake Pokèmon to carry his master straight through like the floor was made of tissue paper.  But it did leave a big mess for Duplica and the students, the latter yelling through her tears, to fix.

Misty hung up, flipping through the book again for another forgotten important address.  This one went to a little-used phone out in the Johto region…but she was interrupted by her Togetic flying into the room.  The Flying-type Pokèmon was one of the most bizarre creatures many researchers had ever seen.  But to her, it was still her cute little baby Togepi.  He chirped, concerned.  "Don't worry," Misty responded, "_both of you are staying here."  Psyduck looked both distressed and comforted by that idea.  Togetic seemed to be thinking about it, but Misty ignored him as she returned to the phone._

****

A few hours later, Misty was hanging on to a Charizard for dear life.

Not the one that used to belong to Ash; that one was the only Charizard present strong enough to carry Brock **and** tow the balloon anymore.  No, the one she was astride in the darkening sky was Charizard's daughter, nicknamed Clarice.  Clarice's mother, Charla, was bearing the Pokèmon family's trainer Leeza as usual.  Misty hadn't kept in touch with Leeza over the years very well, but was eternally grateful that the older woman has acted quickly on their old friendship.

Something of an amazon, Leeza's good looks were still hers.  She was noticeably buffer around her legs and arms, and Misty seemed to remember catching something on the sports channel about Leeza winning a triathlon a few months ago.  She was clad in the latest sporting gear, allowing her long green ponytail to whip in the wind, and didn't look at all cold.  If it wasn't for Clarice's impressive body heat, Misty would've been frozen in the air, she was sure of it.

The Charizard procession was still a good way from Sternbreak Island when Leeza swung her mount closer to Misty's.  "Let's start down here, we need a plan before we go any further," the amazon yelled over the biting winds, "Follow me and Charlie!"

Despite her discomfort, Misty returned, "Who's Charlie?!"

Leeza didn't catch that as she pointed her brigade down toward ground level.  The group landed on the outskirts of Shell Rock, a small town nestled against the ocean's edge.  Misty could see why it was a good idea to land early.  The skies were full of news helicopters, and other trainer-bearing Pokèmon of all shapes and sizes.  Suddenly she realized there were also a lot of police copters out there, searchlights beaming as they prowled the coastline.  She could hear the roar of police boats as well.

Most of all, she could see the ominous edge of Hurricane Psychic whirling a few miles away across the waters.  The winds were making an eerie banshee howl, audible even from here, that made the hair on her neck stand on end. 

She shook it off, turning to their guide.  "So, who's Charlie?" she repeated.

Leeza grinned and thumped Ash's old Charizard.  "I couldn't call him 'Charla's boyfriend' forever, could I?  And just wait until you see some of the moves we've picked up!  Not even Ash will know his old buddy!"  Both the trainer and her Pokèmon smiled again, and the tip of Charlie's tail blazed a little brighter in his enthusiasm.

"Hey," Brock said, "You guys want your stuff now, or what?"

He was starting to paw through the equipment Misty had brought in the balloon.  Even Leeza, in her bare-midriff outfit, was starting to shiver a little as night approached.  Both women eagerly took the thermal clothing Brock was digging up.  Brock fished out a very large thermal shirt, peering over it with a cocked eyebrow at Misty.

"Duplica sent me your size for Christmas," she explained.

"Oh.  Thanks!"  Brock happily pointed up the street a ways, adding, "And there's the Pokèmon Center!  We can change there."

"No," Misty interjected, "don't you see all the police?  They don't want anybody risking their necks to reach Sternbreak Island.  If we go in there with all this equipment, Nurse Joy will figure something's up and call Officer Jenny for sure.  We'll all be locked up in record time."

Brock looked crestfallen.  "Yeah, you're right.  We'll have to find someplace else around here to change."

As one, they turned to Leeza to see if she had any ideas.  They found Charla with her back to both of them, her wings spread wide.  And Leeza, on the other side of her Pokèmon, using the creature for a living screen.  She'd just thrown her discarded top and leggings over one of Charla's wings, and they could tell by the scuffling sounds that Leeza was pulling the new shirt over her head.

"Oh," Misty said, turning to Brock with, "I don't think I'm going to do that, there's too many people around…"  She noticed Brock was just staring, dumbfounded. 

"Ohhhh!!"  Misty snarled, turning almost as red as her hair.  "Grow up, Brock!  You're a married man!  What would Duplica say if she could see you now?"

Brock gulped, breaking into a blush.  "Sorry, Misty, I didn't mean it!  I just didn't expect that, is all…."

By this time, a fully changed Leeza was striding over to put her old clothes into the balloon.  She had a silly twinkle in her eye as she said, very neutrally, "Well, I'm all set.  It's sort of a tight fit…"  Leeza indicated her hourglass shape, which the slightly too-tight thermal gear was showing off well.  "Even if you didn't check my size, Misty, I suppose I can manage."

Misty didn't remember Leeza being this tarty.  She started to say something, but Brock stepped in.

"Ah, yes, _my wife Duplica was very punctual to send our dear friends that information in time for Christmas shopping," he explained, making a show of his wedding ring, "I'm sure __she and I could find you something nice this year too, Leeza.  Some new camping gear for your place in the Chariffic Valley?"_

Leeza looked really disappointed.  In fact, she looked Brock's muscular body, still clad in his pants and T-shirt, over with frank wistfulness.  Finally she wagged a finger at him, "If I'd known you'd grow up into such a handsome man…"

Satisfied that it was over, Brock looked around and indicated some tents for changing your bathing suit down on the beach.  "I think we can sneak in and use those, not too many cops on this end of town," he offered before setting off himself.

But Leeza evidently believed she still might know where to find some free game.  As the women fell into step a bit behind Brock, she quietly asked Misty, "So I guess you haven't seen Ash for awhile, then.  A little out of touch?"  Her eyes never left Brock's rear as he walked along purposefully ahead.

Misty was quickly becoming sorry she'd called Leeza at all.  "We're getting along fine," she said with a very cold, friendly manner, "He just got in over his head again, that's all.  And we're here to rescue him just like usual."

Brock overheard their conversation.  He'd wanted to ask Misty about this, too, but didn't want to bring her more grief.  The last he and Duplica had heard, some four months ago, Ash had actually left his post at the Indigo Plateau to move into a small apartment near Misty's Cerulean Gym.  Things were getting serious; he'd sort of expected to counter their wedding plans with his birth announcement.  Then he'd forgotten to call them entirely….for months.  Brock grimaced anew at this bad slip-up.

Leeza was looking sideways down at the shorter woman, smirking.

After Brock graciously allowed her to change first (and bravely stayed outside with Leeza), Misty led them back to the balloon.  She pulled out a set of scuba gear, pitching it toward Brock.

He caught it, his eyebrows flying up.  Misty still couldn't see his eyes.  He asked, "We're, uhh, not going to fly over?"

Leeza didn't seem distressed; she was starting to get angry about the idea that her Charizards might not be good enough.

Misty explained, "I don't want to fly into a hurricane with Officer Jenny nipping at my heels.  Most of the hurricane's force will be over the water's surface.  There'll still be some currents, but that won't bother my Gyarados if we go deep under.  The hard part will be rising up into the currents to land on the beach itself."

Leeza forgot her anger as her jaw dropped, "_You've_ got a Gyarados?  I thought you were scared of them!"

Grinning a little too brightly up at her, Misty answered, "That was a _real long time ago, Leeza.  I've grown up.  I guess you really are out of touch with Ash and me."_

She thrust a set of gear into Leeza's hands.  With another wistful grin that said she'd lost the round, but not the fight, Leeza began checking the equipment.  Misty offered, politely, to help with that but Leeza insisted she knew her way around any outdoors survival gear.  Brock tried desperately not to notice; the Charizard family was ignoring the women too.

Misty called Gyarados out of her Pokèball.  The massive Water- and Flying-type Pokèmon looked glad to be out, but mindful of the need for secrecy, she kept her joyful roar to herself.  At her mistress' wave, Gyarados laid down quietly in the lapping surf.  Misty and Brock started tugging a good, thick harness onto Gyarados' back just behind her hump.

Meanwhile, Leeza turned to her Charizards.  "Okay, everybody back into their Pokèballs.  Don't worry," she told young Clarice, "that harness Misty's putting on Gyarados will hold us in place, no matter what.  And my tool belt will hold your Pokèballs."  She hated to admit it, but Leeza knew she could trust Misty's judgement when it came to anything to do with water.  She tried to let that belief show in her comforting gaze to her Pokèmon.

Clarice still looked scared, so her mother gamely Returned first.  Charlie puffed up, blowing an impressive Flamethrower into the air—a promise to his young daughter that nothing would happen to her, so long as he still lived.  Finally reassured, Clarice Returned to her Pokèball as well.

Charlie gave his mistress a long, measuring look.  He'd known Misty and Brock longer than he'd known her; he was ready to trust them with even his family's life.  The powerful Pokèmon wagged his finger at her.  Leeza laughed, "You don't think I'll let you down, do you?"

The Pokèmon shook his head; then he pointed to Misty and Brock.  He held up two fingers, pointed at Leeza with the other hand, then held up one finger on that appendage.  Finally Charlie brought his hands together, and allowed three fingers on one hand to remain standing.  His gaze never left her eyes.

Leeza got the message.  "Okay," she grumbled, "Peace between us.  Until the rescue mission's over, I promise.  All right?"  Charlie gave one last huff of smoke, clearly a _"and don't you forget it"_ before he too Returned.

By this time, the others were waiting for her, Gyarados squirming a little in her harness.  Leeza caught Misty's eye.  "We're ready to do our part," she affirmed, "as a _team_."

Brock and Misty relaxed somewhat.  "Then let me tuck you two in," Misty grinned, "and we'll be on our way!"

No sooner had Misty finished wrapping the mesh harness around her charges than a familiar voice rang out loudly.  _"Hold it!"  Officer Jenny ordered, charging across the beach with both a couple of Growlithes and it's evolved form, Arcanine, at her heels._

"Oh boy," Misty gulped.  She slithered under the harness herself, joining Brock and Leeza in a prone position against Gyarados' scales.  Misty had shotgun atop Gyarados' back, with her friends on either side.  The mesh harness covered her head to foot; she prayed it would be enough in the coming storm.  "Go, Gyarados!" she cried.

Behind them, Jenny blew her whistle shrilly.  But that did no good; Gyarados merely reared up and moved into deeper water.  Looking very, very frustrated, Jenny brought out her megaphone to cry, "This is your last warning!  Return to the beach!"

Gyarados answered with a disdainful flick of her tail, allowing the wave to splash onto Jenny's unprotected legs.  She really, _really wished for uniform pants instead of a microskirt.  _

"Fine!" the officer of the law growled, "Arcanine!  Flamethrower!"

Gyarados had just reached water deep enough for her to submerge.  She dived as Arcanine spit a jet of flame across the waves.  Leeza jumped in the harness; the blast was very close.  But as her mount went under, the chilling waters quickly cooled the near miss.  She spared a glance toward her leg.  The Flamethrower attack had grazed by so closely, that she could see a small hole in the mesh surrounding her limb.  Her leg itself, however, was unharmed…though she might not have to shave tomorrow.

Feeling someone's grip on her arm, Leeza turned to meet Misty's gaze.  "Are you okay?" the younger woman asked; her voice was loud and clear through the underwater microphones built into their scuba masks.  _Trust Misty to have the latest underwater gear,_  Leeza thought.  Aloud, she replied, "Yeah, it was close, but it missed us."

Satisfied, Misty turned back toward Gyarados' head.  Leeza noticed that with her own body blocking the view, Misty had no idea about the hole.  She didn't want to delay the search for Ash anymore; and she was quite capable of taking care of herself.  It would be all right.

She also noticed that Misty had put herself between Brock and the amazon.  Figures.

The journey to the edge of Hurricane Psychic didn't take very long, thanks to Gyarados.  Brock was greatly pleased that, at this depth, the wind-borne currents and pelting rain were hardly noticeable.  In fact, if he didn't have the beach landing to look forward too, he might've actually enjoyed this.  Gyarados' thunderous heartbeat and calm swimming style, mixed with the water gently pressing around him, was actually very soothing….

"Wake up, Brock", Misty ordered, "we'll have to start upwards now."

He started awake, then grinned at her around his face mask.  Misty grinned back. 

Gyarados was now cruising upwards, following the rising ground level toward the surface.  Misty narrowed her eyes at the increasingly turbulent waters.  Despite all her preparations, something just didn't feel quite right.  Maybe Leeza was too far to one side, the weight of her Pokèmon felt off-center a little…

But it was too late to fidget now.  The storm proper was mere feet ahead; the strength of the wind was bashing water against the rough coral bottom.  "Gyarados," she ordered, "Surface!"

With a challenging roar to the storm, Gyarados raced upwards with a single sweep of her great tail.  She broke into the open air, leaping free of the water and into the wind.  Rain bit into the travelers with the force of a thousand icy knives.  In fact, the wind carried the enormous Pokèmon and her burden nearly ten feet before dropping them into the shallows.  Gyarados screamed with pain; her belly was being pressed against the cutting rocks. 

No sooner did she land, however, than the serpentine Pokèmon was back on her coils.  She slithered up the beach, alternately helped and hindered by the direction of the winds.  Between the falling night and raging storm, the only light found on Sternbreak Island was the flash of violent lightning all around.  The rains had already ripped away enough trees to push the entire tree line far from the beach.  Gyarados kept going, determinedly, toward the comparative safety of the foliage.

The howling winds were too loud to hear anything over, but Misty felt Leeza suddenly slide far to port.  She glanced over, and saw her friend had fallen out a hole in the mesh.  A hole that was rapidly widening, thanks to the storm's cutting influence.  Leeza clutched a few last strands of mesh, looking up at Misty wide-eyed.

Hurricane Psychic took away Misty's cry of  "Hang on!" as she reached toward the amazon.  The rain shifted direction yet again; and despite her strength, Leeza's grip was loosened.  She vanished into the storm, refusing to scream herself.  Misty called after her, reaching futilely into the winds for her…but Leeza was already gone.

"Gyarados!" Misty cried.  Her Pokèmon couldn't hear her over the raging winds; the Water-type just kept pushing forward toward sanctuary.  Misty had gone too far forward in a last-ditch effort to catch Leeza.  Now she was sliding down Gyarados' flank, head-first, toward the still-widening hole.

Brock grabbed both of Misty's ankles in a beefy mitt before clamping his other hand onto a spine along the Pokèmon's back.  He met her fearful gaze solidly, and she could see his jaw was working.  And though the storm was still taking away any sounds, she had a pretty good bet what he was saying to her.  And he'd be right, to insist they find a safe place to search for Leeza from.

Gyarados finally noticed the redistribution of weight along her back.  When she glanced back, Misty indicated they head to the lee of a large hill.  Gyarados rumbled a reply they felt through her scales.

The mesh was almost completely torn to pieces when Gyarados finally reached the hill.  Between the lee of the rock and the surrounding trees, most of which still survived, it was enough to get free of the tattered harness and regroup.

Misty's feet had hardly hit the ground when she cried, "Dewgong!"

In a flash of light, the large Water- and Ice-Type Pokèmon appeared from his Pokèball.  She knew well that plenty of wild Dewgong lived on rocky shores just like Sternbreak's, except farther north.  He'd be the best bet for finding Leeza, if any Pokèmon could…  She threw that thought out of her mind, ordering, "Go!  Find Leeza and bring her here, now!"

"Wait!" Brock called.  The Pokèmon and his trainer stopped to peer at him through the rain.

Brock grinned, throwing a Pokèball of his own.  Steelix appeared, looming ominously in the pounding storm, with a mighty bellow.  The hill was too small for him and Gyarados; so Steelix was primarily stuck out in the cold.  It didn't seem to phase the grim look on the diamond snake's face.

"It's my turn!" Brock continued, "Steelix, Dig us a tunnel into the eye of the storm!  Misty, you should have Dewgong use it to bring Leeza back when he finds her!"  "Got that, Dewgong?" Misty asked.  After a reassuring cry of _"Dewgoonnggg!!"_, she sent her friend on his way.

As she Recalled Gyarados, Brock gave Steelix the order to start Digging.  A split second before his Pokèmon did so, the creature's large size attracted one of the many lightning bolts crashing around.  Steelix grinned, enjoying the tickling sensation as the enormous bolt covered him head to tail.  When it finally abated, he started corkscrewing into the earth.

"Wow," Misty said, "The rain didn't intensify the lightning on him…You've raised Steelix really well, Brock."

Brock blushed a little, reaching a hand over his shoulder to scratch an imaginary itch on his back.  "Yeah, well, both Steel- and Ground-Types are resistant to Electric attacks, and plain Steel is strong against Water…"

He was interrupted in his false modesty when Misty cried, "Can't you do something about the mud?  I don't want to be buried here!"

Of course, the earth that Steelix was displacing had to go _somewhere_.  Right now it was pluming out behind the Pokèmon and starting to pile up around the hole, including his two watchers.  Brock gulped, realizing Steelix was too far ahead to just ride him like they should've.  "Let's go!" he cried instead.  He paused just long enough to shoulder the extra set of gear for Ash that Misty had brought along, including all of the search party's regular clothes in a waterproof bag.

As Brock had hoped, Steelix had enough of a head start that the ground he was burrowing through was already settled onto the floor of the tunnel by the time he and Misty walked down the new-forged path.  Both shut their scuba tanks valves off to conserve air and pulled free of the masks, but kept the rest of the gear on.  Even underground, Hurricane Psychic was making the island very _cold.  _

Misty fished a satellite map out of her waterproof pocket.  Brock peeked over her shoulder at it, asking, "So the weather reports say that Hurricane Psychic hasn't moved off Sternbreak in a week?"

"That's right," she confirmed, "It's one of the big mysteries around this storm.  And it's part of the reason people think Mew might be causing it."  Her mouth set in a grim line, and she knew Brock was thinking the same thing she was.  They'd met a Mew once, and her power had lived up to her legendary reputation.  But she had been the gentlest of creatures, only fighting when the lives of others were endangered by the clone Pokèmon named Mewtwo.  If any Mew was causing a hurricane, something had to be terribly wrong indeed.

Of course, Mewtwo himself had whipped up a ferocious storm on that particular occasion as well.  Together with Ash, the friends had changed the Pokèmon's angry mindset that day, and a subsequent encounter with Mewtwo confirmed that he truly had reformed.  She couldn't quite believe that Pokèmon was behind the storm either…but the prospects either way chilled her.

Brock was thinking along similar lines.  But the thing that had bothered him most, was how Mewtwo had used his Psychic powers to erase the memory of their first encounter for years.  He'd finally given them back their memories when he'd needed their help upon their second meeting; that time the Psychic-Type had needed saving.  From Giovanni himself, head of Team Rocket.  They'd been successful then, with Ash at their side.

His determination to find his friend, well and hearty, redoubled.

But it was still a quiet moment, and without any eavesdroppers, Brock couldn't resist asking his friend softly, "So what happened between you and Ash?  We've been expecting wedding bells any time…"

He looked ready to back off if she was hurt by the question, but Misty only sighed and kicked a clod of dirt out of her way.

"Oh, it was just a stupid fight.  A week ago.  I can't even remember what started it," she blushed, "but next thing I knew, I was saying that he wasn't acting like a Master should toward his duties, he was saying I wouldn't know, being all Water-Types all the time…"  Misty giggled a little self-consciously, trying to downplay her embarrassment.  She finished with, "And you know Ash.  Once he gets his temper up…well, he stormed out and that's the last I saw of him…."  Her face turned white.  Maybe she shouldn't have said _storm_ and _last I saw of him…._

"Oh, Brock!" she cried, turning toward him, "It was so stupid!  Why did I do that!  What if we don't get a chance to make up, what if.. !?"

Brock headed off another crying jag by grasping her hands gently.  "We'll find him.  Don't worry.  And Leeza too.  Everything will be okay, I promise."  He smiled gamely down at her.

Like a little sister, Misty put her head against his chest.  Brock draped an arm around her shoulders, and they kept walking silently side-by-side.

Soon thereafter, Steelix had mercy on them and returned to give them a ride.  It was a rough ride for Misty, but a much faster trip nevertheless.  Sensing his path through the island's bowels, Steelix nosed his way toward the eye of Hurricane Psychic.  It wasn't long before he broke through into open air.

The eye was the eerie center of the storm.  The winds howled, forming the whirling circular outlines of the eye.  And though the interior was free of wind and rain, the hurricane had smashed through the area when it expanded to it's current breadth.  There were signs of the devastation everywhere in the tropical scene.  Misty could feel the electric charge in the air trying to make her hair stand up as soon as she pulled her scuba hood down.  She looked up, noting the cloud cover was complete far overhead.

Brock freed his noggin as well, ordering Steelix, "Hurry back to the start of the tunnel, and bring Leeza and Dewgong right here when they get back."  Steelix's blood-red eyes gave Brock a look that said he was reluctant to leave his master unguarded.  Brock repeated himself gently, but firmly.  Steelix left.

"Look there," she called Brock.  He did as told.  Rising above the foliage was a single lonely mountain.  The craggy peak was bare of vegetation, spiky and unnerving as it thrust up toward the storm.  It's very top was a crumbling ring that made Brock observe, "So, Sternbreak is a volcanic island."

He continued with, "Up there would be the best place to spot Ash."

Misty nodded.  Brock called out his Crobat, charging the Pokèmon with proceeding ahead of them.  Crobat's Supersonic waves echoed across Hurricane Psychic's eye at wavelengths only other Pokèmon might catch.  But it would still alert the madly flapping Pokèmon to anything at all that might signal their friends' presence.  The friends geared themselves up for a long climb, but although the rocks looked sharp, the slope was fairly gentle.  Very intimidating in the harsh conditions, but gentle.

They didn't get far when Crobat returned in a tizzy.  Excited, the pair dashed after Crobat to a spot at the volcano's base.  The Pokèmon was blasting his Supersonic at the rocks gathered there.  When his master still looked confused, Crobat landed on his tiny legs exasperatedly.  Then Crobat began scratching at the surface with all four wings, peeking back to see if Brock had finally caught on.

He had.  "Golem!"  Brock said, sending out his former Geodude.  Although shorter than Misty, the rock turtle Pokèmon was so beefy that he literally weighed a ton.  "Use Dig," Brock commanded, "But slowly."  Golem bent to his task, his strong arms scooping out great hunks of rock to pitch behind himself.

Misty was turning white again.  "Crobat said there's something under there, right?"

Brock nodded grimly.  She looked around as a tiny spark of hope warred with her dread.  The area was torn up somewhat, but it didn't look like a rockslide had buried anything…or any_one_… at this place.

There was a funny metallic crunch where Golem was digging; the Pokèmon stopped with a confused, _"Golem?"  His owner stepped forward, peering intently._

Misty leaned down too, watching as Brock lifted what looked like a damaged electrical box of some sort.  Golem grinned sheepishly; the bent-in side of the box was about the same size as the creature's hand.  Brock waved away the small mistake, pointing out to Misty that, "Look, the wires keep going underground.  I don't think this was buried or something.  It looks like it was deliberately placed."

He spotted a switch on the undamaged side of the box and flipped it.  Nothing.  Brock tried again, and with a spark from the box, the surrounding rocks started to _move._

Everyone jumped back.  The gentle slope was opening sideways like aircraft hanger doors.  The camouflaged opening slid neatly into place within the mountain proper.  As it did so, a narrow row of fluorescent lights atop the tunnel thus revealed glowed into life.  The walls and floor of the tunnel were metal, not rock or ground.  It looked very high-tech and sinisterly familiar.

As one, Brock and Misty said, "Team Rocket?"  But there was no answering laughter, no cry of a silly motto, not even any big red "R" anyplace to be seen on the tunnel's walls.  Misty giggled despite herself at her foolishness.  The entire Team Rocket organization was long gone, much less those three weirdos.  But it sure looked like something they'd pull back in the old days.

"Shall we?" Brock offered, smiling himself.

"Sure," and she took a firm step into the corridor.

****

Somewhere on the outskirts of Pallet Town, on the opposite side of town from Delia's residence in fact, the young blue-haired man from the morning stepped into his own house.  "Jesse, sweetie!  I'm home!"  he called with all the enthusiasm of a television dad from the 50's._   James Morgan, king of his castle._

Instead of his wife's pleasantly throaty voice, however, he got a high-pitched scratch of a reply from deeper in the home.  "_Den stop foolin' around in the livin' room and come help me in da kitchen!  Not everybody's gots a cushy job all day; some of  us have to woik around da house!"_

James stopped in the hallway to peek into the kitchen as he was bid.  Meowth was there, wearing his little apron, and trying hard not to shed into the food he was making.  Not that a little excess fur bothered the scratch cat Pokèmon; but he was sick of his friends' complaints about it.  Actually, it was the cat who was, as usual, doing most of the complaining.

Perhaps that had something to do with his helper, James reflected, as he watched Wobbuffet toddle around the stove.  With a familiar cry of _"Wobbbuffett!", the bizarre Pokèmon saluted the man of the house and spilled her tray of snack cookies.  Meowth hissed, jumping down from his step-ladder to begin yet another argument with the bigger Pokèmon.  James happily left them to it, grateful for the excuse to get out of refereeing dinner preparations._

As he continued toward the back of the house, James was once more proud of how his –and his wife's—hard work had finally gotten them this nice, middle-class dwelling.  It was almost paid for, four bedrooms, and had a nice view overlooking Pallet Town from the den in back.  And that, he knew, was where he usually found his aforementioned better half this time of day.

The den was dark except for the shining TV screen.  In it's sharp reflection, he spotted Jesse sitting in her big rocker quietly.  She was so quiet, and ignoring the great sunset pouring through the windows behind her, that James paused to admire her.  Clad in shocking pink and white maternity wear, Jesse was resting a large, shabby book on her giant stomach.  She'd cut her hair very short on a whim; James hoped she's put it back once the twins were born.  Otherwise, despite her increased girth, there was nothing as beautiful in all the world for him as he watched Jesse's face.  She was absorbed completely in reading.

No, not reading.  Looking.  At photographs.

James' heart skipped a beat.  Gently, but quickly, he strode across the room and reached for the book.  "Oh, Jesse," he admonished quietly, "Don't.  Don't do this to yourself, dear."

She finally noticed him, gripping the book firmly.  Yet her voice was gentle as she responded, "It's all right, James.  It's all right."

James noticed that Arbok was there also, resting his body on the coffee table next to Jesse so he could peer over her shoulder at the photographs.  The snake Pokèmon looked almost as mournful as his mistress.  James wondered if Arbok had also known the beautiful young woman in the photographs.  Not only was the lady's beauty striking, but so was her shockingly purple hair in a very spiky hairdo.  In some of the pics, she wore a very old-style Team Rocket uniform with evil pride.  In others, she had civilian clothes and a happy, squirming young Jesse in her smiling grip.

James laid a hand on his wife's shoulder, reminding her softly, "She'd be very proud of you.  And so very happy, because you're happy."

Jesse smiled back gamely, tears starting to swim in her eyes.  James had seen the photos of Miyamoto a lot since the pregnancy had began.  He couldn't blame her.  He also wished that she had lived to see her grandchildrens' birth, much less to finish raising her own daughter.  Jesse had been so young in those photos…  The whole thing was a nasty cut for James as well, especially since his own parents (who were at least still very much alive) had disowned them both.

She could see these thoughts reflecting in his eyes.  "It's not just the babies," Jesse admitted, wiping some tears away, "Did you see the look on Mrs. Ketchum's face today?"

Of course he did.  James nodded.

"Her son is out there," Jesse indicated the TV's weather reports with one hand.  The other gently stroked her ample belly as she continued, "In weather just like Mom was…when she…disappeared.  Her son!"  She began sobbing, great wracking sobs of maternal kinship.

James greatly regretted letting Meowth use their old Team Rocket X-ray spyglasses to read the letter.  They'd given up such tricks long ago; why did they have to be so nosy today?  Couldn't they just do what Ash asked them to quietly?

The best he could think of to do was hug his wife close and let her cry it out.  But as he reached for her, she pushed him away sharply.  "Look!"  she barked at the screen.

The news was showing some exciting footage of a Gyarados bearing three people making a quick escape from Officer Jenny on Shell Rock Town's beach.  James agreed with the droning newscaster in the background as he said, "It's just another couple of kooks trying to get killed catching themselves a Mew, dear.  Nothing to concern us."

Jesse was adamant.  "I saw the one just before she put her hood up," she insisted, "It was Little Miss Red, I'm sure of it!"  She flew to the screen for a closer look, but of course by then the Gyarados has disappeared beneath the waves.  Despite her condition, she waved a fist angrily at the TV and commanded, "Roll that tape again!  And zoom in this time!"

Naturally, the distant news station couldn't hear her.  James tried to pull her gently back off her knees, saying, "There are a lot of red-heads around, dear.  Yourself included.  What would she be doing out in Hurricane Psychic?"  Not that he believed a word he was saying, himself, but he had to admit he was lying particularly well today.

She glared up at him.  Not that he'd ever been able to fool her, anyway.

Suddenly Jesse's face took on a slightly manic look that was all too familiar.  Yes, the one where she was dead-set on just **one more try at stealing Ash's Pikachu… or whatever her impossible project was at the moment.  _"Arbok?"  said her Pokèmon, recognizing the somewhat demented stare of conviction as well._**

"We've got to help them, James!"  she exclaimed.

"Are you serious?!" He pulled away from her, standing up.  "You know that Mrs. Ketchum must have called in his friends!  He's got plenty of help!"

"Yes," she snarled, "I just saw them go into the water, dear.  But it's not enough!"

James looked stricken.  "Besides, what help could we be?  He always beat us, didn't he?  He doesn't need us," he explained desperately.

She still didn't look convinced.  With a mother's righteous fury, she pointed at the screen to bellow, "That kind woman's son is lost in that horrible storm, and we just let him go!  Now it's our job to help get him back!"  She nodded like that settled it.

But for once, James thought he had something worth protecting enough to stand up even to his wife.  "We're staying right here!  It's **our** children who need us!  Ash can take care of himself!"

He regretted the words the instant they left his mouth.  Jesse's eyes teared up anew as her hands flew to her mouth.  The look in her gaze was torn between her maternal desire to help another's child and preserve her own.  James settled for holding her as he'd originally intended.

_"Geez," Meowth grumbled from the doorway, _"and I thought youse two couldn't get any soppier.  Bad enough yer' runnin' errands for da Master Twerp, now yas wanna go save his skinny butt too?"_  Both of the Morgans peered at him around each other.  The Pokèmon was wiping his paws on his apron in the doorway and staring hard at them._

_"We's gotten along okay the last couple o' years," Meowth continued, __"but we's don't owe him nuttin'.  Bein' respect'ble is turnin' out bad for yas.  So just stay right there.  BOTH of youse.  Me and the Wonder Blobbo will get dinner on the table."  Meowth turned away, but came right back with a forceful point at his friends.  His claws were out and gleaming.  __"And no more talk about helpin' those idjits!  Just because theyse dumb enough to wrestle a hurricane don't mean youse have to be!"_

Meowth could be cold; but this was enough to shock even Jesse and James.  Until they caught sight of Meowth, starting to turn back toward the kitchen, hurry to catch his nose on his apron's front.  With a loud honk, Meowth continued on his way.  Jesse turned back toward her husband, hoping to convince him.

There was a loud crash from the kitchen, and instead of _"Wobbuffet!"_  they heard Meowth cry, "_Togetic!?"_

"Togetic?!" they repeated, dashing toward the kitchen, Arbok close behind.

Indeed, the little Pokèmon had flown through the open window and lighted right atop Wobbuffet's bulbous head.  _"Wobbuffettt!"  greeted his perch, with a customary salute.  Togetic chirped back._

James asked the question that was on all their minds.  "Why, whatever are you doing here?"

Togetic chirped pleasantly.  A second Pokèmon came through the window, floating nonchalantly in the air.  The observers gasped as a sweet feminine voice purred:

_"Mew."_

****

The tunnel was getting warmer.  It was almost the same as room temperature back home in her gym, but with the thermal scuba suit on, Misty was starting to sweat.  She insisted they keep the gear on when Brock asked, however, because they didn't know how fast a run back through Hurricane Psychic they might need to make.  "I've got a bad feeling about this," she finished, casting wide eyes at the metallic tunnel walls.

For the dozenth time, Brock glanced behind them.  There was no sign of anything, much less Crobat returning from the tunnel entrance to let them know that Leeza had finally reappeared.  Brock was starting to feel a little naked with his Pokèmon team spread out so much.  Not to mention concerned that there was no word from Dewgong yet; but he didn't want to remind Misty about it.  He doubted she'd forgotten entirely about Leeza, anyway.

The tunnel finally turned a sharp corner up ahead; a dark corner.  The duo slowed to peek around it.  "It looks just the same as where we've been," Brock stated, "But the lights aren't on in the next section."

Misty started feeling along the walls, claiming, "There must be a light switch.  The other one must've been part of the door opener.  Let's look around."  Brock joined her in searching.

Somewhere in the darkness ahead, a rough male voice - like a big bullfrog - called out, "Parasect!  Spore, now!"  With an answering cry of _"Parasect!"_, the unseen Pokèmon sent a cloud of yellow dust billowing up the corridor with a whoosh.

Brock dropped the equipment bag in favor of picking Misty up bodily.  He turned to run, but bounced off a metal door that dropped from the ceiling and cut off escape.  As Misty yelled, "Put me down!", Brock whirled back to where the attack was coming from.  He found another door clanging down, sealing them in with nothing but the Spore attack for company.  Brock kept his grip on Misty, banging futilely against the door with his spare fist.

She was already getting quiet in his grip, the Spore doing it's work of sending her to dreamland.  Brock fought to hold on, sliding on his chest down the door as his legs gave way, mumbling that it was all right, he'd still save her, everything would be fine…zzzzzz….

****

Strangely enough, Misty felt a lot less warm than before as she started to wake up.

She shifted slightly and hear the _clink_ of chains.  Her eyes flew open, and Misty found herself clad in her regular clothing and strapped to a dais.  She was almost upright, and a little lip at the bottom of the platform meant she could stand and stop letting the chains on her arms support her completely.  There was a matching set of chains on her ankles, but it was her arms that were sore from holding her up.

Misty glanced frantically around, and saw Brock on a similar device (which was a little too small for him) on her left.  Brock was stirring painfully; his arms were bound but he was so tall now that their captors had been forced to leave his legs alone.  Brock stood up anyway to get some blood back in his arms.  He was back in his civvies too.

"What in the world is going on here?" she asked him.  Brock looked around the dark, metallic room they were kept in without answering.  After all, how would he know?

"Actually," came a smooth male voice from the opening door, "I believe I can answer that question."

Misty stared hard as the older man clumped into the room on his fancy cane.  He flipped on the lights, and through the glare Misty squinted into his face.  He'd been handsome not that long ago, but age was starting to take it's toll.  His blond hair was flecked with white and his very expensive clothing hung off a frame that was more thin than muscular anymore.  The hairstyle, like a trio of spiky backwards points just behind each temple, was jogging at her memory somewhere but she couldn't quite get it…

Seeing the dilemma in her face, the stranger replied, "Forgive me, I never did properly introduce myself to my guests over a decade ago.  So I've only myself to blame if you don't quite recognize me."  With a grimace, he indicated his fading health.  "Or perhaps it's simply because I'm no longer quite myself anymore.  In any case, I am Sir Lawrence Talbot the 3rd.  Or as so many call me, simply Lawrence III."

Brock gasped, "The rich Pokèmon collector?  You disappeared a couple years ago!  What happened to you?"  The last was with honest sympathy over his deteriorating condition.

Misty imagined a younger, healthier face belonging to that silky smooth voice and finally had her man.  "You're the one who was after the legendary bird Pokèmon in that giant, fancy airship!" she accused, "You didn't care that disturbing the balance between them would wreck the environment so much that the whole world was in danger—as long as you captured those Pokèmon!"

"That's right," Lawrence III confirmed, "At least, about capturing them.  I had no intention of not leaving a world where I could enjoy my captured Pokèmon, Ms. Williams.  If you'd studied the legend like I did, you'd know the imbalance would be corrected by acquiring all three Pokèmon—Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres—who caused it."  He grinned thinly.  "The fourth, Lugia, would've been a nice bonus."

Brock still looked blank.  Misty informed him, "That happened when we had Tracey with us, and you were with…" She broke off at the grimace on her friend's features.  Even now, Professor Felita Ivy was still a sore point with Brock's ego.

"Ah," Lawrence III continued, "Mr. Harrison of Pewter City, I believe?  It's a pleasure to meet you.  And to see you again, Ms. Williams.  Yes, I decided to find out exactly who destroyed my airship, not to mention my extensive Pokèmon collection."

Misty was shocked.  "You mean, when that airship went down, there were Pokèmon aboard--?!"

He shook his head slowly.  "No, I never cared much for commoner Pokèmon.  That's why I liked to use my machines to capture only truly precious Pokèmon.  What was destroyed that day was far more valuable.  My collection of books, paintings, legends, artifacts; all of them dealing with Pokèmon."  Now a look of true rage slipped into his eyes as he bent close to Misty's face.  "All of it irreplaceable.  All of it your fault.  And your friends'."

The look of calm civility returned to Lawrence III as he backed up, leaning heavily on his cane.  "My research into your backgrounds revealed you wouldn't bother to come after me.  Your presence had been a fluke to start with.  I would be free to rebuild, and one day, to claim those legendary Pokèmon and far more."

Misty was staring hard at him, but couldn't resist asking the obvious, "How?"

Lawrence III let his gracious manners slip again by smiling thinly, _evilly, at her._

"By doing to you as you did to me.  By taking everything you treasured.  That day convinced me I was wrong; machines couldn't capture Pokèmon properly.  I would need to do it the way trainers have done so for centuries.  A few prime quality Gym Leader's Pokèmon should add to my ensemble quite nicely."  He watched the horrified looks on both captives' faces with an nasty gleam in his eye.  Lawrence III added, "In addition to so many others trainers' Pokèmon, delivered so happily after a few false Mew sightings had them rushing into our midst."  Finally, he inclined his head toward the still-open door, admitting, "And a few capable hands that knew their way around a Pokèball couldn't hurt any, could it?"

Taking it as their cue, a duo in their 30's strode proudly into the room.  Misty would know their faces anywhere, despite the new clothing.  Butch and Cassidy sneered down at them, wearing their very expensive new suits proudly.  Misty noticed they resembled the high-ranking Team Rocket executive suits she'd seen a couple times, but without the emblazoned "R"s.  The duo seemed quite well off with their new leader, despite the acknowledgment of their past in the clothing.

In his deep voice, which sounded like he had a permanent sore throat, Butch groaned out, "Yes, working for Mr. Lawrence has been a very profitable endeavor.  Very profitable, indeed."

Cassidy laughed her utterly mirthless laugh.  "Except for the occasional low point.  Dressing you two up in your civvies…my, my.  That was almost too much to bear."

The idea of that crude moron Butch seeing her undressed was making Misty sick until Lawrence III piped up.  "I am a man of breeding, Ms. Williams.  I assure you that the task was performed by an employee of the same sex."

She felt better until Cassidy added, "And that was the horrifying part.  I do hope your runty boyfriend Ash hasn't seen you like _that--?"  She didn't wait for a reply; instead Cassidy turned to ogle Brock.  She plainly wished Lawrence III had allowed the task to those of the opposite sex, instead.  Brock gulped at her rather aggressive stare._

Somewhat to Misty's relief, Butch didn't really same to care either way.  Instead he reminded politely, "Sir, we have a sighting on the radar scope.  Do you wish to come to the control room to supervise the storm operations?"

"Ah, yes," Lawrence III replied heartily, "has our lovely Hurricane Psychic finally attracted a legendary Pokèmon?  Which one, may I ask?"

Butch and his partner's faces grew very serious.  "We're not sure, sir," Cassidy admitted, "the power readings are off the scales."

Lawrence III's eyes bulged, but he made no comment.  Instead he shuffled quickly after them, allowing the door to slide shut with a bang.

"Well," Brock observed, "At least they left the lights on in here."

Misty yelled across to him, "What good does that do if we can't get free?  All our Pokèmon are gone!"  Quieting somewhat, she tested her chains.  "It's no good for me, how about you?"

Brock tugged at his wrist restraints, but the metal refused to yield to his great strength.  "My legs are free, though," he pointed out, "If they come back in again, maybe I can catch somebody and force them to let us out."

She spotted something on the wall on his side of the room.  "Wait, Brock, look there," she indicated, "I think it might be an electric switch for the locks.  Try to reach it with your foot!"

With a grimace, Brock stretched toward the hoped-for freedom.  He stretched, and wiggled, and shifted, trying to spontaneously grow just _another inch_….  But it was no use.  Finally he leaned back, resting.  At the look on her face, he assured her, "I'll try again, Misty, just give me a second."

He was interrupted in his second attempt by some loud shuffling noises.  After confirming they weren't being caused by each other, the duo glanced around and finally realized the noise was coming from a small overhead air duct.  The noise stopped as the occupant did, assessing the small grille capping the duct.

With a Quick Attack, a familiar yellow shape burst through the grille and into their prison. 

_"Pikachu!" the Electric Pokèmon cried, throwing his friends a V-for-Victory sign._

"Pikachu!  All right!"  Brock yelled.  Only the chains kept him from scooping up the mouse for a big kiss.

Misty was even more ecstatic.  "And if Pikachu's here, then that means--!!"  She shut her mouth, not daring to see her rising hopes dashed, but Pikachu had spied the door lock Brock had been reaching for.  A small leap, and Pikachu had slapped the door open.  The person Misty had most been hoping for strode in, wearing a insufferable grin.

Ash Ketchum looked none the worse for a trip through the raging hurricane than when she's seen him a week ago.  He still dressed simply in blue jeans and black T-shirt, but instead of his vest Ash now preferred a floor-length cowboy's duster in dark grey.  She had to admit to herself that, with his runner's athletic build, it did make him _somewhat handsome…maybe…not that she really cared….  He still had that silly hat; something he'd never get rid of, no matter how she pestered him about how childish it looked._

Not that she cared right then.  Misty tugged at her chains, unsure if she wanted to kiss Ash or smack him for the ornery grin still on his face.  "Well?" she challenged, "Are you going to let us loose for coming to save you or not?"

Ash paused, a twinkle in his eye.  "Is _that what you're doing, Misty?  Here I just thought you liked _hanging_ around Sternbreak Island."_

Misty saw red as her relief fueled her anger.  Luckily, or maybe purposefully, she was still chained.

Ash turned to the wall's control panel and studied it.  As he did so, he nodded toward Brock with a cool, "Good to see you."

Brock was getting a little angry too.  He hadn't wanted any harm to befall Ash, but how dare he just be so perfectly fine and downright smug about this…

Neither captive had to stew much longer;  Ash found the release and hit it.  Misty sprang loose, and despite herself, dove into Ash's arms for a hug and kiss.  A _long_ kiss.  So long that Pikachu and Brock amused themselves, trying hard to give them some privacy by staring around the room.  Pikachu looked a little jealous.  After all, Misty hadn't snuggled him yet.

Finally released from her liplock, Ash smiled at her a little nervously.  "I guess that little fight we had is over?" he asked.

She smiled back, still half-angry.  "What _were we arguing about, anyway?"_

Ash shrugged and pulled loose gently, saying, "I don't remember.  It probably wasn't important, anyway…"  He caught Brock's hand in a high-five for a much more hearty greeting than before.  Pikachu, meanwhile, finally got his snuggle as Misty scooped him up into her arms.

Suddenly Brock lit up.  "Did you see Leeza?"

His hopes were dashed as Ash frowned.  "No.  Who's Leeza?"

Misty added, "She's that girl who you gave Charizard to way back when.  She came with us too, but we got separated in the storm."

Ash looked thoughtful.  "Then if Lawrence III's goons found her, she'll be in their processing room or in prison like you guys, if they've finished with her already."

The Pokèmon Master peeked out the door, and seeing no onlookers, waved for his friends to come out as well.  "Processing means taking all the trainer's Pokèballs and equipment.  It should be this way," Ash instructed.

As she fell into step behind him, Misty whispered, "How do you know so much about this place?"

Ash looked as if she was questioning his competence as he replied, "I've been here for a couple of days already, Misty.  Did you think I'd just stand around when I saw other trainers getting ambushed and kidnapped?"

"No," she replied with a slightly mocking tone, "I thought you'd rush headlong in and save them, letting everyone on the island know who you are and where you were right away."

Ash paused to give her a hard stare, but admitted, "I thought about it.  But I realized that if they'd been running Hurricane Psychic for almost a week already, they must've had dozens of trainers.  And they'd all need my help.  So we hid and followed Butch & Cassidy home.  Me and my Pokèmon have been trying to map this place out and make a plan."  His little friend, as always, backed up his statements with an enthusiastic, _"Pikachu!"_

They slowed at a T-shaped corridor junction; Ash again peeked before waving them on.  Brock spied a security camera hanging from the ceiling and cried, "Look out!"

"Don't worry about it," Ash assured him, "When Pikachu saw you guys getting interrogated on the monitors, I had him give the security room goons a little Thunderbolt.  After that, we messed up the equipment to make it look like a stray lightning bolt from their own storm had done it to themselves."

Brock noticed that the camera's power indicator was indeed off, and he was impressed.  "Not too shabby, Ash," he confessed, "Not too shabby at all."

Ash grinned up the non-pulsed look on Brock's face, adding, "Hey, everybody's got to grow up sometime."

Misty gestured toward one of the many sets of similar-looking doors they were creeping past.  "Then these must be more prison cells."

"Should be," Ash agreed, "And we should have a lot of help once we set 'em free.  Of course, Lawrence III has a lot of employees too, but that'll really even the odds.  Once we get everybody back their Pokèmon, too."  Pikachu responded with a narrow-eyed, _"Pikachu."_

Misty shook her head.  "That Lawrence doesn't understand a thing about Pokèmon," she growled, "If he thinks just stealing them will make them obey his orders."

Ash looked serious.  "He doesn't just steal them, Misty.  He didn't get a chance to do it, but those racks he had you two strung up on were more than just something to keep you in place.  They can give out a nasty shock, perfect for torturing a trainer and making their Pokèmon do what they're told."  He shot a relieved glance back at her.

She couldn't resist saying, "And you had to rescue us from that right away!  Aw, Ash, how _sweet…_"

"Yeah, yeah," Ash huffed, but he looked pleased at her compliment.

Brock was looking thoughtful.  "So do you think there's some kind of master control switch for the locks in that security room you mentioned?  Maybe we can just open the doors and let everybody flood out at once.  That would fix Lawrence!"

"He's got more than one security room," Ash admitted, "I think we just knocked out this sector.  Still, it looks like the chain locks are electronic, so if we can shut off the power, that should free everybody."

"What about opening the doors, though?" Misty asked.

Ash spread his hands.  "That's where a bunch of angry Pokèmon eager to return to their trainers comes in, once we get 'em free."  _"Pikachu!"_

Their leader slowed down some more and lowered his voice further, "We're getting close to Processing.  Pikachu, go into the air vents and check it out.  C'mon back and tell me how many there are."

He held his Pokèmon up to the grate near the ceiling to help his little buddy on his way.  Pikachu wasn't as young as he used to be, and despite his eternal cheerfulness, he'd have difficulty leaping that high.  He could still move quickly and quietly, however, and it was only a few seconds before the mouse returned and held up two stubby fingers.

"Outside the door?"  Ash quizzed.  He got a nod.

"Then give 'em a Thunder Wave, and we'll finish them off."  At the last, Ash cracked his knuckles and looked up at Brock.  He got a reassuring nod.   Misty balled her fists up too, and Ash realized it would be foolish to suggest she stay here.  No matter how much better he might feel about her safety.

Soon they heard the gentle crackle of a Thunder Wave echo up the duct.  In stealth mode, Pikachu kept silent, however.   In fact, they could see the light from the electric assault spilling around the corner.  Ash and Brock jumped around, Misty hot on their heels.

With Thunder Wave's paralyzing effects still setting their heads spinning, Lawrence III's grunts didn't have a chance.  Ash gave one a flying kick on the run; Brock sent the other down with a huge blow.  Misty had to settle for watching them crumple and be happy she wasn't on the receiving end of Brock's attack.  His fist was almost as big as her head.

Ash spied Pikachu, well, _peeking out the duct at them.  "Did you check inside?"  He got a nod back.  "Anybody getting processed in there?"  Pikachu nodded again._

"Great," Ash informed his friends, "We'll have some help right away.  Do another Thunder Wave, then open the door!"

Pikachu smiled and Misty reflected how evil the cute little Pokèmon could look when he tried.

A few tense seconds later and the door snapped open.  Ash hurled a couple of Pokèballs as he raced in, crying, "Blastoise!  Venusaur!  I choose you!"  Right behind, Misty and Brock again felt naked without their own Pokèballs to throw.

Processing turned out to be a large room with several privacy screens set up for searching incoming prisoners.  About a half dozen workers were stumbling around, trying to shake off the Thunder Wave, as Venusaur and Blastoise materialized in their midst.  With angry bellows, Ash's Pokèmon began quickly subduing the befuddled workers.

Ash, meanwhile, turned at Pikachu's loud cry for his attention.  All three of Pikachu's human friends spotted him pointing behind one of the privacy screens insistently.  Ash got there first; after a quick peek around the screen, he firmly put his back to it with a growing blush.  "Uh, guys, I think that's Leeza," he said sheepishly, "umm, Misty, could you--?"

Brock turned to aid someone strapped onto a gurney as Misty smirked, "What's wrong, Ash?  Too much woman for you?"

He glowered at her and went off in search of a first aid kid, calling out to Brock to do the same.  "Pikachu must've hit everybody in the room," he explained, "And I do mean _everybody_, or else he might've missed some of the goons."  Pikachu stopped sneaking a peek at Misty dressing Leeza to join him.

Ash's search was soon rewarded; the captors kept a well-stocked medicine cabinet just in case incoming Pokèmon got rowdy.  By the time he'd returned to Misty and Leeza, the amazon was fully dressed.  She wasn't fully conscious, however.

"Ash," Misty said, "I think she's got a concussion.  Give me some of those bandages, too."  Ash could see some blood matting Leeza's hair and slowly making a mess out of her gurney pillow.  The big woman's eyes were open but rather unfocused.

Still, Leeza managed to blurt out, "Ash!" and force her friends to make her lay back down.  Ash caught her wavering grip and tried to smile reassuringly down at her.  Misty noticed that her Dewgong and Brock's Crobat had been stuffed into cages alongside Leeza.  Without their Pokèballs, their captors must've been at a loss…but where was Steelix?  She bent to free her friends.

Brock risked a glance around the corner and greeted Crobat happily.  Then he interrupted Ash's attempts to console Leeza with, "She's not the only trainer hurt in the storm.  But we're not the only ones okay, either.  I've got them gathering up the wounded toward the back."

Ash nodded and made to see for himself.  Leeza's grip, though much weaker than usual, still stopped him.  "Ash," she moaned, "Take them.  You'll need them…"  Her wavering eyes indicated her tool belt, still holding the Charizard family's Pokèballs, on the nearby table. 

"Thanks, Leeza," he said and meant it, "You just lie here and get a good rest, okay?  The others will take care of you."  She tried to nod but it made her head swim.  Leeza settled for closing her eyes instead.

Brock nodded at Venusaur and Blastoise, who were approaching quietly.  "With Charizard back for now at least, it's really old home week around here," he observed.

"Yeah," Ash agreed, grateful for the thousandth time that he'd reclaimed his Squirtle and Bulbasaur a while back.  He just couldn't bear to take Charizard from his family for keeps; however it would be nice to work with his friend again.

"His name's Charlie now," Misty offered, putting the finishing touches on Leeza's head bandage.

Ash held the Pokèball up, claiming, "It doesn't matter what we call each other.  We've always been friends, and I know I can trust in you just as much as the rest of the team."  He Recalled his other Pokèmon and let Pikachu hop onto his shoulder.  Then Ash set out with Brock to gather up the healthy Trainers and Pokèmon together.

It was a motley crew of varying ages and both sexes that greeted them.  Ash waited for the cries of recognition to settle down, trying not to relish it _too_ much, before exclaiming, "Okay, listen up people!  We've got something nasty on our hands, and there's a lot more trainers involved than just us in this room!  Anybody who's got a strong, fast Pokèmon needs to let it loose and start cracking prison cells open!"

As the trainers bent to their Pokèballs, Ash reminded them, "Most of their Pokèmon will be in enemy hands, but they'll return to our side when they see their trainers free.  But keep some of your team handy; things are gonna get messy quick."

Trainers can only carry six Pokèballs at a time.  Ash put Charlie's on a empty slot.  After deciding to keep Blastoise, Venusaur, and of course Pikachu, he let his Umbreon out to assist in freeing prisoners.  That would leave him one empty Pokèball; perfect…

The young Master Trainer broke off at the sight of the tall, muscular man toward the back of the crowd.

He'd let his dark hair grow so long it was done up in a narrow ponytail streaming behind him.  He was also clad in a dark turtleneck sweater with khaki pants instead of his familiar orange business suit; and lines had come onto his face since Ash had seen him last.  Still, there was no mistaking how the man held himself erect studiously, watching Ash unblinkingly with a look very akin to pride…

"Giovanni?" he gasped.

Everyone turned to the object of his accusation with looks of their own.  The older ones in the crowd murmured that he'd once been the Gym Leader of Viridian City, before Gary Oak had taken over.  It still wasn't common knowledge that the man watching Ash quietly had once been Team Rocket's all-mighty Boss as well.

"Ash Ketchum," he greeted quietly, "and Brock Harrison of Pewter City, I believe?  Yes, I seem to recall hearing you two and yes, there's Ms. Williams, were always traveling around together."

Misty had never believed that Giovanni had gone straight when Team Rocket fell years ago.  She opened her mouth, but Ash stopped her with a grip on her elbow.  She looked into his eyes and got a small shake of Ash's head.  It was a sort of confused look her gave her, but it clearly said not to question things.  Not yet, anyway.  There was something in Giovanni's attitude that said he wanted no trouble from Ash.

Finally Ash acknowledged, "We can always use help of your caliber, Mr. Giovanni."

The older man inclined his head with a gracious nod.

Ash turned to Brock with, "There's a couple people to watch the wounded, right?" 

"Naturally," Brock replied.

"Then let's go," Ash commanded, "The rest of you, follow me to the generator!"

Misty had to act fast to join the crowd that began spilling out the door.  She soon cut to the lead, however, right at the heels of her friends.  A few skirmishes broke out on the way, but in the end, Misty expressed her surprise when they reached a large double door marked "Generator Room".

"Yeah," Ash responded, "There's not much resistance, yet…"

Brock answered, "Remember when Lawrence III left our cell?  They had an incoming Pokèmon.  A very powerful one."

Ash grinned evilly, "Oh, too bad that his crew is all so busy right when we're breaking outta this joint.  Yup, just _toooo bad."  He tried not to let the reminder of a very powerful—perhaps even legendary—Pokèmon's presence show on his face as Ash strode confidently toward the double doors._

He was interrupted by a pair of voices ringing out in nasty laughter.  "Who--?!"

From either side of the door appeared Butch and Cassidy, blocking the way firmly.  "To infect the world with devastation--!" Butch started in.

"Zip it and skip it!"  Ash responded, "Team Rocket's history, and I don't care what new motto you might've come up with for Lawrence's Army!"

The duo looked pleasantly surprised at that.  "Say, Lawrence's Army," Cassidy told her partner, "That kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"

Butch croaked, "Yeah, the runt may be on to something there."

"It's better than anything we've come up with so far," Cassidy admitted.

Misty roared, "Would you shut up and put 'em up!"

By this time, Ash had already sent out Pikachu.  "Thunderbolt, go!"

But before the little Pokèmon could zing it out, his targets were jumping and fidgeting at their waists.  A few Pokèballs dropped off and released their charges of their own accord.  Butch and Cassidy found Brock's Golem, Forrettress, and Kabutops joining Misty's Starmie, Cloyster, Politoed, and Corsola in staring them down.  "Uhhh…" the Lawrence's Army mainstays gulped.

"Gee," Ash said, "I bet this is really gonna _hurt_."

He was answered from behind by cries of "Rock Slide!" and "Hydro Pump!"

Butch and Cassidy got hit so hard, they flew into the double doors and crashed them down with their own weight.  Not to mention a few hurled boulders.  Ash, Misty, and Brock stepped over their unconscious forms, trying not to slip in the draining water, and surveying the opposition in the generator room proper.

The other employees rose to the challenge; but with some of "their" Pokèmon returning to their masters as well, it was a quick and one-sided affair.  Brock studied the main control console while Ash and Misty kept lookout, just in case.  "I think I've got it," the beefy man finally replied before flipping some switches.  Several rows of lights on the large screen overhead went out.

Brock clapped his hands together and said, "That should be all the chains' electric locks.  Except for the ones who the Pokèmon already cut loose, anyway."

Misty glanced out into the corridor and said, "Unless it's really just the lights."

Brock swallowed hard at the now-darkened passage.  "Uhh…"

Ash laughed, "Try again, Brock.  You'll get it this time, for sure."

He redoubled his efforts, which soon bore fruit.  More and more trainers, Pokèmon in hand, were joining their group.  Ash paused to check out the overhead map himself.  "Looks like the control room is up here," he said.

"Let's go!" Misty answered.  Then she stopped.  "Wait, where's Giovanni?"

Ash looked surprised at his disappearance.  "I thought he was right here…"

Misty grew livid, yelling into his face, "And you trusted him!  Ash, you can still be so naïve it isn't funny!"

Ash roared back, "I didn't hear you having any ideas!  If it wasn't for me, you'd still be _hanging_ around your prison cell, wouldn't you!?"

Brock was forced to break them up once again, saying, "C'mon, _lovebirds_, let's get this show on the road!  Giovanni's probably just off saving his own skin, but we've got a job to do!"

They stood apart, a little lingering glance in Ash's eyes saying he still wasn't sure about what Giovanni was doing now or why he'd come there in the first place.  Just some insistant warning in the back of his mind…

The three friends pounded up the corridors and staircases, Pikachu and the gang of trainers right beside them.  Most of Lawrence's hired hands broke and ran at the sight of their former captives with blood in their eyes.  To Ash's relief, their good luck held as the trio broke out of the underground complex and into open air.

It turned out that the control room was a part of the enormous hurricane generator itself.  The friends found themselves on a narrow gantry catwalk overlooking the volcano's molten core a few miles below.  Even at this distance, the heat was starting to glue Misty's hair down as her gaze swept over the installation.  The Hurricane-Maker was straddling the cone, it's pyramidal core topped with an enormous radar dish.  Ash could feel the raw power throbbing from the dish and out the top of the volcano to keep the storm brewing.  He realized that between the cloud cover and how the dish didn't quite reach the top of it's hiding place, the Hurricane-Maker was very well concealed indeed.

Misty eyed the set of gantries, like the web of a spider, that linked the Hurricane-Maker to the underground complex everywhere around the volcano's interior.  There were plenty of railings, but still…

Ash gritted his teeth and set out across the walkways.  It was broad enough to allow the trio to walk side by side, but not much wider than that.  For once, Misty envied Ash his hat; it was helping to keep the sweat out of his eyes.  Behind them, the crowd of trainers started fanning out and taking different walkways.  Lawrence III's control room was quickly becoming surrounded.  He _had_ to notice…Ash spurred his friends on a little quicker, glancing around for an oncoming attack.

Suddenly it felt like Ash was moving through thick mud.  His movements, his breathing, even his heartbeat slowed like a clock winding down.  He tried to turn to his friends, who were also moving with all the grace and speed of a Slowpoke.  Misty was making a funny sound.  It took a moment before Ash deduced she was speaking, but this weird phenomenon had slowed down her speech as well.  He started to say, "I don't know…" right back and found a evil laugh interrupting him.

Lawrence III was leaning on his cane roughly ten feet ahead, looking unaffected by the crawling pace of his opponents.  Seeing that he now had their attention, he pulled his face back into his usual mask of calm civility.  "I suppose," he drawled, "You're wondering how I am performing this feat, Mr. Ketchum?  Mr. Harrison and Ms. Williams too, my, my, my…the gang's all here."

Each of the three was reaching for their Pokèballs, but so _slowly_.  Their individual cries to release their Pokèmon were jumbled together into a blur of meaningless noise as time constricted around them.  Pikachu tried to dart forward, but even his Quick Attack was dulled to the point where the spunky Pokèmon's speed was no better than a brisk walk.

"I must confess," Lawrence III gloated, "I'm not causing it on my own.  Unless, of course, you'd care to count that it's MY Pokèmon performing the deed upon MY orders."  He stepped aside; the small figure thus revealed was enough to make the onlookers gasp.  Slowly.

A Celebi was there.  The legendary Pokèmon was using his ability to manipulate time to literally send the local time zone into a dead crawl.  He looked at them with a slightly grieved expression as Lawrence III flipped his Pokèball in his hand.  "Hold them," he commanded.

Ash, Misty, and Brock froze almost completely.  Celebi left them just enough temporal cognizance to catch what his master was saying as Lawrence III indicated the gigantic Hurricane-Maker.  "And this time, serendipity is on my side, Mr. Ketchum!  You were in the right place at the right time to thwart me ten years ago!  But today, the imbalance of nature my hurricane caused has attracted one of the most powerful Pokèmon ever!"  He smiled a thin-lipped smile, "And just in time to assist me in culling your little breakout attempt.  To think, I was content to fake the presence of a Mew, and I caught myself a Celebi!  Ah, irony is _sweet."_

Looking disheveled, Butch and Cassidy stepped around the captives and to their employer's side.  They gave Ash and company a nasty look.  Lawrence III looked the duo over appraisingly for a moment, and seeing that they were none the worse for wear, grew suddenly wistful upon looking at his prisoners' faces again.

Their captor reached into his jacket to pull out a large Pokèmon trading card.  An old one, depicting an ancient cave drawing of Mew, but still in pristine condition.  Ash recognized it as Lawrence III's most treasured possession, since he'd told them so on his last meeting long ago.

"I suppose," Lawrence III said with some regret, "I don't really need this anymore.  I have something better in reality."  With a tiny hint of regret still coloring his features, Lawrence III let the card drop from his fingers.  It fell between the rails of the platform he was standing on and toward the lava below.

It was strange; but Misty found her eyes on the glittering card as it dropped.  And stopped.  In midair.  She struggled against the time force, trying to ask Ash if he'd seen it too.

Misty never got the chance.  A couple of smoke bombs went off at Lawrence III's feet, sending the old man choking to the rail.  A pair of very familiar voices laughed their nasty laugh.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To save all peoples within our nation!"

Lawrence III gaped up at the two speaking figures, standing tall at the base of his Hurricane-Maker's dish.

"To announce the goodness of truth and love!"  Jesse continued.

"To save our friends from the lava---well, _below_!"  James countered.

_"Oh, give it a rest awready!"  Meowth groaned, looking green.  __"I'm gonna hurl!  It's bad enough we're doin' dis!"_

_"Wobbuffettt!"_

Cassidy sneered, "Nice fashion statement you're making there, Jesse.  What is that?  Whale?  Or just Big-As-Wobbuffet?"

Jesse smirked back, "Why, it's nothing someone like you, who's never had a steady boyfriend, would understand."  She looked serenely at her husband, who took her hands and gazed back warmly.

Cassidy threw a look at Butch, who had always been her partner and nothing more.  He gave her a "What are you looking at me like THAT for?" stare right back and swallowed hard.  He didn't want Cassidy getting any funny ideas…

Misty hadn't kept in touch with the Morgans as well as Ash.  She was shocked to see how big Jesse was; between her, Duplica, and even Charizard having kids….  _What, was she the only one alone here?, she thought angrily._

"Oh, please," Lawrence III snarled, "you were never much back when there was such a thing as Team Rocket.  It's an insult for you to erroneously believe you can stop me now.  Celebi,"  he indicated his targets, "get them.  Psychic!"

But even as the Pokèmon shifted gears, Jesse cried, "I'd heard you were a man of breeding!  How dare you try to attack a woman in my condition!"  Wobbuffet leapt in front of her protectively.

Lawrence III looked ashen at the accusation he might be guilty of any lack of gallantry.  "Indeed," he admitted, "Celebi, use Time Freeze on them!"

He grinned up as the Morgans and their Pokèmon friends found themselves slowing to a crawl just as Ash and the others had moments before.  He turned back toward Ash to gloat.

Ash merely grinned back at him.  "I guess," he said softly, menacingly, "That poor Celebi's a little overstretched trying to hold on to _everybody.  We're just fine."  Misty smiled quietly too, and Brock flexed his muscles._

"Celebi!"  Lawrence III cried, turning to the Pokèmon, "Hold on!"

But between the doubtless effort to resist capture before and his holding the large gang of trainers at bay, Celebi was straining to fulfill his task.  He looked at Ash, Misty, and Brock to send a wave of green psychic energy over them.  They felt the now-familiar Time Freeze starting to hold them down again….

Just as a wave of _pink psychic energy rose up from below the catwalks, straining against the Time Freeze effect.  The three friends were pushed free of their temporal bonds as a small furry figure rose gracefully from below.  Misty bared spared a glance as her Togetic flew from the newcomer's side to alight on her shoulder with a happy chirp._

Mew seemed to enjoy how she had everyone's undivided attention.  She giggled like a schoolgirl, waving Lawrence III's abandoned card at the crowd happily.

"Celebi!"  Lawrence III roared, "Go!"

"I don't think so!"  Ash countered, "Pikachu!"

But as Pikachu stepped forward, so did Butch and Cassidy.  "Let's run some interference," the lady sneered at her partner.

Up top, Jesse had taken a seat.  The sweltering heat was getting to her a little.

"Let's go inside, dear," James suggested, spying a closed hatch further down their platform, "This heat can't be good for you."

Jesse quickly counted the number of combatants below and sighed.  "Normally, I'd be very interested in a one-sided battle.  Especially if I'm on the winning, superior side," she reflected, "but maybe Ash has all the help he needs right now."  She was definitely starting to feel sick; and Wobbuffet helping her squeeze her pregnant girth through the hatchway wasn't helping much.

Meanwhile, the battle below was spreading across the Hurricane-Maker's various gantries and catwalks.  Celebi had given up on his Time Freeze completely, but now more of Lawrence III's men had joined in to take on the trainer gang.  The entire massive installation was shaking as Pokèmon battled across it's sprawling support network.

Brock glowered, sending Kabutops toward Butch's Drowzee in a whirling Slash attack.  Drowzee dodged and came back with a Headbutt; it didn't faze the Rock-Type at all.  Kabutops finally sent his opponent flying with a Hydro Pump to display his half Water-Type nature.

Misty would've cheered for Brock's watery victory if she wasn't facing down Cassidy herself.  Togetic had fled high up on the Hurricane-Maker, but Raticate was bearing down on Corsola with a Hyper Fang.  "Chew on this!," she growled, "Spike Cannon!"  At her bidding, Corsola shot a round of hard-edged spikes into Raticate's open mouth.  The rat Pokèmon gurgled and spit them out, examining her painfully swollen tongue.

"Get back in there!"  Cassidy snarled, hitting her Pokèmon on the back of the head.

She looked up at her mistress piteously; the Spike Cannon had also puffed up her cheeks so much she could barely choke out, _"Raticaatte!"_

Cassidy's eyes flashed.  She snarled, "Get in there, you useless--!"  She was cut off as Corsola did a Headbutt…into Cassidy herself.  The head employee was knocked backwards against the Hurricane-Maker, senseless.  "That's what you get for being mean to your Pokèmon," Misty added, knowing her unconscious foe couldn't hear her anyway.  But the point had to be made.

Within the control room, Jesse was adoring the excellent air conditioning.  She was also enjoying the nice view out the windows of the control room itself.  Wobbuffet stayed close by; but her male friends were wandering the room and examining the controls.  "Ssshhh," she told Wobbuffet, "Enough with the play-by-play!  I can see what's going on myself, thank you."  _"Wobba!!"_

In spite of the AC, she was still feeling increasingly uncomfortable.  She glared down at her womb, asking, "What is it?  Are you two doing a tango in there or something?"

_"Did yas say somethin', Jess?"  Meowth asked from his perch atop a instrument panel._

"No, nothing," she quickly assured and tried to hide the pain in her face.

"Oooo!!"  James squealed, "I think I've found the controls for Hurricane Psychic itself!  How droll."

She spun in her chair enough to bellow, "Well, then turn it off already!"

He gave her the same tut-tut finger wag he'd used on Delia's Mr. Mime before.  "Simple minds, my dear.  How about I make a nice big bolt of lightning, sure to attract that sweet Officer Jenny, from this here volcano first?"

_"Not bad at all, Jimmy," Meowth offered, _"but can't we cheese it before da coppers get here?"__

"You forget!"  James laughed in a pretty good Meowth impression, "We's all respect'ble now!"  And so saying, he began playing with the controls before him.

Outside, Ash's attack had forced Lawrence III back toward the broad viewing windows adorning the control room proper.  It also kept him busy enough that Celebi was on his own in his battle with Mew other then a quick command to "Get Mew!".  Misty spared a glance; it seemed that Celebi was making a half-hearted effort at best.  She doubted Celebi had much affection for his new master.

Mew, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying it greatly.  She swooped among the mechanical outcroppings and battles, sometimes stopping briefly to lend a hand, or let one of Celebi's 'wayward' Psychic blasts do it for her.  Mew giggled again and Celebi almost joined in but didn't dare, lest Lawrence III catch him somehow.

But he was far too busy.  His Machoke was flexing his muscles, holding Ash's Blastoise at bay.  Pikachu was using Agility to dodge a furious Drill Peck from Lawrence III's Fearow.  And all the while, Ash was edging closer to his opponent.

It was poor form for a Master, he reflected, but this wasn't a formal competition.  It was for something more…so he sent out Venusaur as well.  "Use your Vine Whip to bind Lawrence himself!"  Ash commanded.  With a deep-throated _"Veenussaur!", the mighty Grass-Type sent a blizzard of leafy tentacles from beneath the palm fronds on his back toward the old man._

"Machoke!" Lawrence III yelled in response, "Fire Blast!"

The beefy Fighting-Type hurled Blastoise aside enough to spew a generous Fire Blast in Venusaur's direction.  His raging flames burned aside Venusaur's Vine Whip and continued toward the Pokèmon himself.  Venusaur flattened out; but he was too big for the blast to miss entirely.

"No!" Ash cried, flinging himself upon his friend just before the Fire Blast reached them.

Misty screamed as Ash and Venusaur alike were flung into the air by the impact.  Venusaur, having been low to the ground, was caught by the railing.  Ash wasn't so lucky.  He tumbled bonelessly over the side and into open air.

_"Venusaur!" his Pokèmon cried, letting his burnt Vine Whip snake around Ash's middle.  Between the Fire Blast and the pain of the mid-air catch, Venusaur moaned in agony.  He might've been unable to pull Ash up if Misty and Blastoise hadn't reached the railing quickly.  Each grabbed the Vine Whip and began hauling Ash up, who was reviving fast as he swung in the hot volcanic air._

Behind them, Lawrence III was gloating to himself about how very easy this would turn out to be.  "Send them _all tumbling," he gleefully ordered Machoke and Fearow, "Let nothing survive the volcano's fury!"  His face was contorted with rage; any assumption of gallantry was long forgotten.  His Pokèmon agreed with evil smirks._

Lawrence III broke off at the little yellow shape plopping in front of him with a _"Pikachu!"_

"What?"  was all he had a chance to get out before the electric mouse snarled, _"PIKKAAA-CHUUU!!"_

The accompanying Thunder attack sent Lawrence III and his Pokèmon soaring straight up and past the Hurricane-Maker's dish.  Almost.  They started falling back down, just as James sent another bolt of lightning straight up from the dish and into the skies to signal Officer Jenny.  As luck would have it, the artificial bolt caught them as well and they were blasted free of the volcano, each of them smoking badly, in its entirety.

Jesse peered out the windows after them, telling her husband, "Hey, not bad."

He threw her a quick thumbs-up in response, adding, "Nice to see somebody else blasting off for once, isn't it?  Now, about this nasty cloud cover."

At the railing, Ash was finally hauled over the side.  Misty gasped at his burnt arm and side; he tried to smile back through the pain-filled tears and couldn't.  "Thanks, everybody," he ground out from gritted teeth instead, "Especially you, Venusaur.  If I wasn't so slow, you wouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place…"

His big green buddy spared the strength to blow his apology away with a snort.  The Pokèmon looked like he wanted to say something in English, but Misty was probably beating him to it.

"Ash," she growled, trying to see how bad his burn was, "If you would just leave Pokèmon battles to Pokèmon, you wouldn't get in this mess all the time!  Venusaur can handle himself!"

Ash let the comment go.  He could see her relief mixing with her momentary anger; besides, they'd yelled at each other a lot already today.  Come to think of it, _this was what had started that argument where he'd really lost his cool last week._

Blastoise was leaning down, letting a spray as gentle as a babbling brook from the twin cannons in his shell cool off Ash and Venusaur alike.  The huge turtle's ministrations were cut off as Mew and Celebi approached them swiftly.  Both Psychic-Types weren't fighting each other any longer, however.

Mew handed Ash a Pokèball, then leaned in close to his and Venusaur's wounds.  She glowed with hot pink energy that gently caressed the savage burns.  Like a bit of time-lapse photography in reverse, the burns healed swiftly and painlessly.

"Oh," Brock said, "Mew can use Softboiled, just like Chansey.  Fascinating."

"Thank you, Mew!"  Ash cried.  Proving he wasn't too old just yet, he gave the warm Pokèmon an impulsive hug.  She _Mewed back at him happily and struck a pose, emulating the Ancient Mew card still in her grip.  Everyone laughed, including Togetic as the Pokèmon rejoined the group._

Then, with a guilty start, Ash saw his Dark-Type, Umbreon, return from assisting other trainers.  He simply Recalled all his Pokèmon and left his empty Pokèball on his belt.  Misty and Brock noticed this, as well as Mew.  They looked serious, but Mew merely inclined her head toward the other empty Pokèball she'd handed Ash earlier.

"Oh yeah," he responded, "This would be yours, wouldn't it?"  He turned to Celebi for confirmation.

The little Grass- and Psychic-Type nodded, hope filling his giant eyes.

Ash paused, then berated himself mentally for even considering it after their kind gestures toward him and his friends.  Instead he ordered, "Pikachu!  Thunderbolt!" before tossing the Pokèball into the air.  Pikachu shattered it with one well-placed jolt.

Celebi was free.

The friends could feel the impacts rocking the Hurricane-Maker slowing down as the many mini-battles around it were winding down.  Misty glanced around, addressing the legendary Pokèmon with, "You'd better get out of here, before someone else tries to keep you…"

She was cut off by a yell of  "Victreebel, Go!"  accompanied by, "Get in there, Arbok!"

"Hey!"  Misty roared, turning to face the Morgans across the platform.  She pointed forcefully at them as their Pokèmon charged toward the Psychics.  "I knew you were still bad and couldn't be trusted!" Misty continued, glaring.

Jesse was sweating even more, but still standing as she replied, "Oh, yes, it's just not right for _any trainer to want a legend for their very own, is it?  Even when a Master's got a empty Pokèball and a Dark-Type handy for catching Psychic-Types with, hmmm?"_

Misty turned to her love, who guiltily refused to meet her gaze.

James was ecstatic.  "What a feather in my cap two such Pokèmon will be!  Imagine the prestige my new Pallet Town Gym will have after this!"

His wife grabbed him by the collar.  "We're splitting the Gym _and the Pokèmon fifty-fifty, dear.  We'll be co-Gym Leaders, remember?"_

_"But which one does I get?"  Meowth wondered._

Jesse groaned, "I keep telling you!  You're a Pokèmon, much less a Gym Leader, much less a trainer!  Butt out!"  She turned back to James and added, "I want Mew.  She's so pink and cuddly."

"Fine by me," James agreed, "After Victreebel, I can handle any Grass-Type.  And you'll notice how she's not biting me anymore, by the way?"

Arbok and Victreebel had stopped, awaiting orders and fidgeting in the heat nervously.

Misty and Brock were too busy staring at Ash with their mouths open to pay more attention to the Morgans' family dispute.

"Well," he finally offered, "Everybody came here because of the Mew sightings.  I'm not the only one who wanted to catch her…and that's what trainers do, you know.  It's not like I was going to use Mew for evil purposes or something, like…."

"Like Team Rocket would've?" came a quiet voice in his ear.

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu all jumped.  It was Giovanni, looking scuffed up from battle but essentially whole and hearty.

Giovanni gave them his first smile all day.  It was genuine, but something about it made Misty wish he hadn't.  He continued, "Then if you're not going to take a stab at it, Master Trainer, would you mind stepping aside so I may try my luck?"

It seemed that despite his asking, Giovanni and Misty alike knew what Ash would respond even as his eyes narrowed.  "I owe Mew _and Celebi for helping us out here," he confirmed, "If you catch them, fine.  But you'll have to go through me first."_

Brock looked ready to back his friend up as a loud _whup-whup-whup_ noise crested the volcano's edge.  Everyone looked up to see a fleet of police helicopters, the big fat-bodied type intended for water rescue, swooping around the Hurricane-Maker.  Side doors flew open and Officer Jenny ordered all rope ladders and pick-up nets thrown down.  The assembled trainers around the catwalks cheered; and those who lacked Flying-Types big enough to carry them started climbing to safety.  Recognizing her last batch of escapees, Jenny ordered her pilot to come down to their level.  Besides, then she could have a _word with them personally after the rescue._

Misty realized Jesse was pushing past her toward the ladder, Arbok and Wobbuffet alike Recalled to her ample waist.  "Hey," she asked her fellow red-head, "What about Mew and Celebi?"

Jesse was having trouble climbing and talking at the same time, so James responded as he pushed his wife up.  "They left while we were all arguing, I'm afraid.  Nothing to fight over now."  Which was true when she looked, but Misty suspected the Morgans were also eager to avoid recognition by their former Boss.  She watched Meowth join them, scampering up the rope ladder, inside the copter.

Brock turned back from watching a couple of cops pick up the unconscious Butch and Cassidy for a nearby chopper.  He was surprised to still find Ash and Giovanni facing each other; the air was growing thick and brittle with tension between them despite the heat.  Togetic prompted his mistress to go on, flying up into the copter himself.

"Shall we be going?" Ash asked politely, the steel in his voice saying he knew quite well Giovanni had something more in mind.

"Ah, yes, Master Trainer," Giovanni's eyes glittered, "I was hoping I might get a moment of your time when this was over.  Mr. Lawrence wasn't really the only one with unfinished business here, was he?"  Giovanni hadn't missed his former employees' escape; he glanced contemptuously at them.  Jesse, James, and Meowth shivered as their former Boss continued, "Those three kindly explained to me how you came to my Viridian Gym that day.  I knew even before I left that it would be a mistake to leave those three in charge, no matter how pressing my business elsewhere."

Giovanni grimaced with honest displeasure.  "I could only hope that no one challenged the Gym Leader in my absence.  Imagine my surprise when not only did they surrender an Earth Badge to you, they managed to destroy my entire Gym doing so."  Jesse and James were positively quaking in each others' arms now.  Squeezed out from between them, Meowth found himself cuddling into Officer Jenny's grip instead.  She looked more surprised at this than the scratch cat did.

Ash finished for him, "And now you think it's payback time."

He turned his cap backwards as Misty cried, "No!"

"Make up your mind, Misty," he returned, "Do you want me to act like the Master I am or not?"

She had one hand on the rope ladder; the other was trying to grip his elbow.  "I want you to stop acting like a pig-headed idiot and grow up!" she challenged, "You can fight it out in my Gym, or Brock's, or anyplace BETTER THAN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO!"

Jenny dumped Meowth onto another seat with a protest, yelling down to them, "She's right!  Now get up here, all of you!  That's an order, in the name of the law!"

Instead Ash inclined his head toward Brock, never daring to take his eyes off Giovanni.  "Brock, old buddy, kindly show the officer to the processing room where we left all those wounded trainers.  Her rescue job's not over yet."

Brock gulped and seemed of two minds about the whole thing.  Still, he glanced at the roiling lava far below, and found himself reluctant to leave those hurt for a moment more than necessary.  "I'll show them," he said, and threw a glance at Misty before heading to the chopper that had picked up Butch and Cassidy.  Besides, he knew that if anyone could get through Ash's bull-headedness, it was his lady love.  He climbed in, and shortly the other helicopter joined it's fellows in leaving the cone with their burdens.  Except for Jenny's ride as she still glared balefully down at her reluctant rescuees.

Misty took the cue.  Her anger was spent; she let go of the ladder to grab Ash's shoulders and spin him around to face her.  Misty gazed up, long and hard, into his eyes.  She pleaded with him through her gaze; through her _soul_.  And Ash, suddenly feeling ridiculous, softened.

"I guess I've still got some growing up to do, huh?" he admitted.

She merely replied, "Ash, you've just taken another big step forward."

As she clung to him, Ash was feeling magnanimous enough to wave Giovanni onto the copter ahead.  He ignored James and Jesse saying, "No, that's okay…You can come first, Ash!(and sit by us)…Don't rush on our account!"

The couple was surprised to see Giovanni giving them a strange look.  Not hatred, not revenge, nor even a thick-headed insistence on battling like before.  It was a look that seemed out of place on his cold, lined visage.  It was a look of…_envy_.

For an instant, Misty saw a great lonely emptiness, lasting a lifetime or two, in Giovanni's eyes. 

Ash sensed it too, but again got that funny feeling that somehow what Giovanni wanted didn't have anything to do with him.  Or Misty.  He repeated his wave for Giovanni to proceed up the ladder first.

This was the moment the Hurricane-Maker's superstructure chose to begin groaning in earnest.  The many Pokèmon battles had taken their toll on the machine's support network.  The main platform, which Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Giovanni were still standing on, dipped hard to one side.  Spilling over in that direction, the dish nearly clipped Jenny's helicopter blades.  In fact the copter swung to the side so quickly as it dodged that, without their restraints, Jenny and the Morgans would've fallen out.

Meowth did fall out, with a shriek.  Jenny caught him by the tail and got another shriek.  She pulled the little Pokèmon in and fastened some seat belts around him in one smooth move.  Meowth looked at her with absolute adoration while cuddling his bruised tail.

Pikachu may have slowed down with age, but the electric mouse's reactions were yet far quicker than any human's.  He was first to grab hold of the railing, but to his horror saw his friends still sliding toward the edge.  Giovanni was scampering away from them, using his rail for a ladder to ascend the steep slope back toward more stable territory.

Ash grabbed onto a knot of cables appearing out of the platform's flooring as it's plates twisted and buckled.  As Misty grabbed onto his leg, the Pokèmon Master brought them both to a stop halfway toward the edge.  The cables held; and when Jenny's copter wove back into view, he pointed Pikachu toward the vehicle.   Togetic flew back out, chirping desperately as he flapped around their heads.

Seeing that Jenny's rope ladder was mere seconds away from his master, Pikachu complied and hopped across the gap into the copter directly.  Then he turned to cheer his friends on, _"Pika!  Pika!"_

Giovanni started back down his makeshift ladder to reach the dangling rope one.  Ash tried to pull his legs up, groaning with the effort, to help Misty's reach toward their safety.  She caught the lower rungs in a deathgrip, then reached back for Ash.  Misty helped him pull himself onto the ladder.

"Steady," Officer Jenny warned her pilot, "Just a minute more…"

The platform moaned and caved in some more.  Another branch of cable broke loose and snapped through the air like a whip.  It struck just above Misty's hands, severing the ladder neatly.  She and Ash didn't have time to scream as they were dumped back onto the platform.  Falling onto their stomachs, the wind was knocked out of the couple as they began sliding down the even-steeper plunge.  

She released the now-useless ladder piece, clutching vainly at the smooth steel plates.  Misty flew helplessly into space.

Just as Ash clamped both hands onto her arms just above her wrists.  He'd wedged his foot into a newly formed crack in the plates, and she heard something in his back snap as her weight forced Ash's torso over the side.  She fought not to kick in mid-air wildly.  Instead Misty tried to keep her composure and kick toward some purchase to climb back up with.  Her Togetic was beneath her rump, trying valiantly—and vainly—to push her back up to safety.

Ash said nothing; but his eyes grew suddenly frightened.  Misty felt them both slide a good distance more over the edge.  His foothold was weakening.  She kicked toward a foothold of her own again.

The plates gave way.  Ash started quickly sliding forward again, a hopeless agony of failure in his eyes as his feet cleared the platform's point of no return.  Togetic gripped the back of her blouse, knowing full well he couldn't carry her much less both humans, but ready to die trying.

Until Giovanni, firmly stuffing himself inside the last bit of railing, reached out and caught an ankle one-handed.  Ash and Misty swung over to his side, and Giovanni moaned as his shoulder made an ugly crunching sound.  Still he held his charges tightly, with fiery determination in his narrow eyes, as Jenny's copter dared come closer to their disintegrating perch once more.

Inside the copter, Pikachu was staring hard at James.  _"Pikaa!" he prompted._

James was sweating.  "What are you looking at me like that for?  I didn't do anything!  I'm on your side now, remember?"

Meowth helpfully translated, _"It's not whatcher **doin', Jimmy.  It's whatcher **not** doin'."******_

James still looked confused as Pikachu reached for a Pokèball at his belt.  _"PIKA!!"_

He saw it and his expression brightened, as well as Jesse's.  "Oh!" she said.

"Ooo, I get to be the hero for once!" James grinned, "Victreebel, I choose you!"

His Pokèmon appeared within the copter's confines and seemed to be eyeing Jenny as a possible chew toy replacement for her master.  The cop frowned, _hard_.

Meowth leapt to his girl's defense with, _"Enough!  Make wit' the Vine Whip, awready!"_

With her usual ear-splitting screech, Victreebel reached out toward the trio.  As humans and Pokèmon alike held Victreebel firmly, she grasped all three of her targets and began reeling them in quickly.  James was beaming, "Good work, Victreebel!  I can't wait until our first Gym Match!  Nobody's going to get a badge from us!"

Togetic maintained a short distance from his mistress' head as they slowly rose.  Giovanni was quite happy to relinquish his hold, nursing his wounded arm with a grimace.  As for Misty, not even Victreebel was holding her tighter than Ash.  They found themselves face-to-face with the other, ascending into the chopper's belly.

Ash took advantage of the opportunity to give her a quick kiss, whispering into her ear, "If anything had happened to you…"

The volcanic heat stole away her relieved tears as she whispered back, "I wouldn't have left without you.  It's why I came to Sternbreak Island; to find you or else…I wouldn't be going back."

Her love pulled back enough to look into her eyes.  "You mean,..if I'd fallen in first…you'd come after me?  No matter what?"  _To both our deaths? His thoughts echoed in his eyes.___

Only one of her arms was free of Victreebel's clutches; she threw it around his neck.  "Together," she said, "From now on.  Always."

Ash almost grinned at her, throwing a glance around sheepishly.  Giovanni was already inside the rescue vehicle; they would join him in a split second…but he couldn't resist.  It was now or never.

"Misty," he said very seriously and as quietly as he could, "Will you marry me?"

She looked up at him in such shock that Ash hastily added, "Uhh, if you don't want to, that's okay!  It's a weird moment, and stuff, and I understand….!"

But he found her grasping him so tightly as Victreebel finally released them that Ash lost his balance and fell back against a seat.  James' Pokèmon kindly swung the door shut behind them, joining everybody but Giovanni in a loud chorus of, _"Awwww….."_

Meowth asked Jenny, _"Youse got any barf bags on dis ting?"_

Giovanni simply had that empty look in his eyes again, but nobody noticed.

Instead all the occupants were watching the last of the Hurricane-Maker begin it's death plunge into the lava heart of the volcano.  Only a few plumes of smoke, quickly dying, suggested it had ever been there in the first place as the police copter cleared the rim and headed across the ocean for home.

With Hurricane Psychic only a memory, the ravaged landscape of Sternbreak Island was easy to see.  And Brock, to his great relief, saw something else near the beach.  Steelix was looking up, wagging his tail hopefully like a giant Arcanine.  With Jenny's permission, Brock leaned out the slowing copter's window to Recall his friend.

Misty felt something poking her side from within her jacket pocket.  She reached in and pulled out the Ancient Mew card before her and Ash's wondering eyes.  Misty leaned against Ash's chest, turning the parting gift over in her hands.  He watched her for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the quickly receding Sternbreak Island.

Everyone was looking back at Sternbreak now, reflecting on their different views of the adventure, when Jesse started complaining.  "Look, can't this thing go any faster?  I'm not feeling too well…"  She rubbed her tummy yet again, and Misty could swear she saw a kick from inside ripple across the surface.

She looked up in time to see Jesse turn ashen.  "Oh, boy," she moaned, "oh boy, oh boy…"  Her grip on her husband's shoulder clamped painfully.  "James," she said in a high-pitched voice, "You are in so much trouble."

James turned to Officer Jenny with an earnest plea, "Please, Officer!  You can go faster, can't you?  We've got a medical emergency here!  My life is at stake!"

A Pokèball popped open.  _"Wobbbuffettt!"_

****

A few hours later, Brock rejoined the crowd in the waiting room from his trip to the vidphone.  He looked a little flushed at forgetting to make the call when they'd first arrived, but he'd had to wait for Ash to talk to Delia first and it had slipped his mind in his worry for Jesse.  Ah, well, at least he had the good news of Ash and Misty's upcoming marriage, Jesse's impending birth, and most of all, his own personal safety to make his wife feel forgiving.  Brock had even stopped to check on Leeza, who was unconscious with painkillers but otherwise good.

In the waiting room proper, Brock found Ash sitting next to Misty.  They were watching the closed doors leading into the maternity wards anxiously.  James had gone with his wife, but Meowth—and all other Pokèmon—had to be left at the nearby Pokèmon Center with Nurse Joy for sanitary reasons.  No matter how loudly and insistently  the cat had railed against it.  Misty felt sorry for him; she'd gotten up to give the assembled Pokèmon a status report regularly.  Even though she hadn't befriended them as much as Ash had over the last few years, Misty's efforts were very much appreciated by the anxious cat as well as the other creatures.

Nevertheless, Brock was thinking how soon it would be before this set of shoes would be on _his feet.  Misty looked at him with raised eyebrows as he strode in._

"Everything okay with Duplica?" she wondered, stressing the _everything_.

"Sure," he replied as casually as he could, "She's only in the fourth month.  We've got plenty of time."  He scratched his back nervously, adding, "It's not like anything could've changed that in the day or so I was away…"  But he still looked relieved that particular miracle had passed them by.

Brock jumped, noticing the quiet figure standing with arms crossed in the corner.  "He's still here?"

Giovanni looked up wordlessly, his expression fathomless.

Ash looked over as well, with a expression that said he didn't understand it either…yet it was time to get to the bottom of the matter.  "Mr. Giovanni," he began, "I think we've got everything under control, here.  If you'd really like a battle, you can see me at the Cerulean Gym about it in two days' time.  Okay?"

If Ash's words reached him at all, Giovanni didn't register anything.  Misty looked at her betrothed, who didn't seem to sense any malice from Giovanni.  Neither of them sensed _anything; he was just __there._

Finally Giovanni pushed off from the wall.  Quietly, he said, "As you wish, Mr. Ketchum.  Cerulean, two days from now."  And he started toward the door.

The door flew open from the other side; Giovanni was hid behind it for a second as a burst of noise flustered into the room.  "Oh, my my," Delia fluttered, "That Charizard of yours is so _sweet, Ash!  Checking on me the whole way down here!  And I thought I recognized those two at the door yesterday!  Your little friends, having a _baby!_"  She squealed with delight, stopping to cast a maternal gaze onto Ash as he and Misty stopped leaning on each other in their chairs._

"Ohhh," Mrs. Ketchum added, "I guess they're not the only ones soon, hmm?  Let me give you some pointers, dear, about making pregnancy as comfortable as it can be.  I know a thing or two from my experience with Ash, trust me…"  She reached for Misty, with Ash moaning, _"Mommmm…  we're not even married yet, I told you on the phone…."_

Giovanni's shadow moving across the door's window caught Delia's attention.  He'd almost made it out after all when she turned around with an, "Oh?"

She stared at his back in shock.  Giovanni stopped cold, not daring to face her.

"Ex…excuse me…sir…" Delia rattled out.  She looked white, and her outstretched hand was trembling.  Ash leapt to her side to literally grab her shoulders for support;  she looked like she would cave right in.  Misty was on the other side, glaring hard at Giovanni.

Delia continued, "I'm sorry, but you…umm…remind me of someone…."

He turned slowly; his eyes still expressionless.  "Hello, ma'am."

Neither Ash nor Misty had to hold her up anymore.  She ran to Giovanni, throwing her arms around his neck.  Delia leaned up to plant a kiss on his lips, but his stern gaze stopped her cold.  Slowly, she released him.  Giovanni's own arms never stopped being crossed behind his back.

Ash's teeth were grating; if this clown didn't stop treating Mom like that, he was gonna die right then and there.  No hospital would be able to put _him_ back together.

At the look in her eyes, Giovanni added, "I'm sorry, ma'am.  You seem to have mistaken me with someone else.  A dead man, perhaps."  He nodded toward Ash, "I might not be able to make it to Cerulean in two days after all, Mr. Ketchum.  Perhaps we can conclude our business another time and place."  He made to leave.

"I don't think so!"  Ash roared, all composure chucked to the wind, "You explain yourself RIGHT NOW!"  His voice blasted up the corridors so much that a couple of nurses quickly peeked out the door to shush him.  Ash didn't care.

When Giovanni simply turned and walked through the double doors, Ash was stopped in his pursuit by Delia's gentle grip.  He saw tears forming in his mother's eyes, and with a final glare toward the door, Ash let him go.  Misty helped steer Delia to a chair, but Brock slipped out the doors quietly.

"What did that guy do to you, Mom?" he growled, "I'll get him, if it's the last thing I do!"

"Oh, Ash, don't," she said, trying valiantly to put a good face on it, "Let's forget about it, your friends are having a baby, let's not mar this joyous occasion any further…."

She couldn't hold the facade, however, and clutched her face in her hands to stop the tears flowing freely.  Misty leaned against her future mother-in-law, trying to let Delia draw some strength from her smaller frame.  Ash was torn between a fresh desire to catch Giovanni and wring an apology out of him or helping Delia somehow.  He got some relief when she looked up again.

"Ash," she said, "That man is your father."

Ash and Misty alike felt as if they'd just slid off the Hurricane-Maker's gantry again.  Now it was Delia's turn to pull Ash gently into the chair next to hers.  "But," he mumbled as she did so, refusing to believe it, "His name's not Ketchum.  It's Giovanni…"

"I don't know what his name really is, then," Delia almost broke into sobs anew, "but he truly is your father.  I wish I'd seen a picture of him when you first mentioned him, all those years ago…"

Ash gulped.  Pictures of Giovanni were even more rare than of his father; in fact he'd never seen one of the former Gym Leader.  But there had to be some, he kicked himself mentally, other trainers knew who he was even though he'd given up Viridian Gym many years ago.

He also tried to reconcile the one picture of his father he had with the image of the ponytailed older man who's recently left the room.  It was their wedding day, and the only person happier than the blushing bride was the bearded groom smiling beneath his waves of shoulder-length dark hair.  Long hair…much like the ponytail Giovanni sported nowadays…and if he had a beard…

Delia saw the look of recognition dawning on Ash's face.  Misty nodded as supportively as she could, feeling woefully inadequate.

Her love stood up again, declaring, "I've got to go after him.  Wait here."

Coming back through the doors, Brock answered, "Don't bother, Ash.  He gave me the slip."  The big man glanced around at his friends' faces, the next question forming on his lips.

Brock was interrupted as James leapt joyously out of the ward doors.  "Congratulate me!  I'm a father!  Twice over, in fact," he announced to the room at large.  He was so happy, he didn't even notice Delia's drying tears as he pumped her hand enthusiastically.

"Yes, such a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Ketchum!  So wonderful of you to come!  Yes!" James chortled, taking the grip of each in turn, "And you, sweet Misty!  Brock!  And Ash!  Dear friends who helped make this moment possible by hurrying my beloved wife to safe haven!"  He looked like he was about to burst with good feelings.  He jumped at a sudden mental prompting and exclaimed, "I must tell Meowth and the other Pokèmon!  Excuse me!  Jesse and the babies will be along any minute now, I assure you!"  And with that he was gone in a flustered flurry.

The trio left behind didn't have to wait long.  The nurses pushing Jesse and her children on their gurney paused to let them have a quick look before taking the family up to their room.  Delia and Misty cooed.  Ash found himself examining the newborns with wonder, as if he'd never seen a baby before.  Brock was studying them about as intensely.  Ash glanced up to see Misty watching his own face now.  Yup, his fate was sealed, he could see it in her eyes.

Looking exhausted but ever so happy, Jesse croaked out, "Make a good first impression with our friends, you two.  I didn't."  She giggled softly, then continued, "This is Kevin and Krystal, everybody.  Say hello, children!"  Jesse gently held her babies up; Ash was glad they seemed to have screamed themselves out elsewhere and were asleep.  After some soft hellos, the nurses quietly pulled Jesse away.  The new mother was already asleep as well, her newborns in her arms.

****

A new day dawned in Pallet Town.  It had taken the combined power of Charlie and his family to tow Leeza's heavily-laden travel balloon here from Shell Rock Town.  Looking none the worse for wear save her bandage, the amazon gave the newest members of the Morgan family another kiss before saddling up for home.  Ash was sorry to see Charlie go again, but with Misty leaning on him warmly, he just might be able to fill that family void…the thought sent Giovanni back to mind.  He tried, fiercely, to squash it for now.

Ash wanted to thank Jesse and James more thoroughly, but the family hurried to their pink Cadillac for the drive home.  He shouldn't delay them; he'd see them soon as their Gym started up in earnest.  Ash settled for helping Misty wave goodbye for the moment, dislodging Togetic from her shoulder.

Brock was leaning way down to scratch Pikachu's fuzzy little head.  When the couple turned toward him, the big man caught Ash's hand in another high-five.

Ash tried to meet Brock's gaze, saying, "I really owe you for that one, Brock.  Thanks."

Brock pulled away, pointing at him in half-mocking admonishment.  "What did you expect?  Leaving a horrible note like that for your own mother?  What did you think she would do, besides call us to bail you out?"

"Yeah," Misty cheerfully chimed in, "What kind of son are you, anyway?"

"I didn't think you guys would get there before I was in and out…" Ash was forced to mumble as Brock accepted a goodbye hug from Misty.  "I'll be seeing you at the wedding, of course," Brock reminded unnecessarily.

"Of course!"  Misty said into his stomach.

Delia even leaned up to give him a peck on the cheek, adding, "Thank you for saving my son."

Brock blushed down to the tips of his toes.  He'd said once that Delia reminded him of his own mother; Misty wondered what Mrs. Harrison would say if she could see her son now.  She knew his mom would be impressed; not just at how big and strong Brock was physically, but how strong he was _inside_.  She and Ash were very lucky to have a friend like him.  Ash was thinking the same thing, she could see it in her betrothed's eyes.

Brock hurriedly called out Steelix to bear him back to Pewter City.  This time, he remembered to just let his Pokèmon slither a good distance out of town before Digging on their way.

As she turned back to say goodbye to Delia, she thought about what her own parents might've said about her and Ash.  Surely her sisters had already had plenty to say on the subject, and she could feel more coming once they got off the bus back at Cerulean City… but that didn't matter on the start of such a beautiful day.  In fact, she wasn't really in a hurry to leave yet, and this feeling was reflected on Ash's face as he turned to his mother.

Delia saw it too, and warmly welcomed them to stay awhile.  "It's no hurry, and no bother," she assured them, "Just let me and Mimey throw on some breakfast, come _in_."  And Delia scooped up Pikachu, allowing Togetic to switch to her shoulder, just to seal the deal.

The couple paused on the porch, Ash looking wistfully at his childhood home.  "It feels funny," he said, "This is where it all began.  My Pokèmon journey.  That was before I met you, or even Pikachu."  He grimaced at the memory of how he'd happened upon Misty in the forest, a very angry pack of Spearows pursuing him and Pikachu.  Not the best way to impress a girl.

But she'd let him borrow her bicycle anyway, to get the wounded Pikachu to safety.  Yes, he was lucky to have a friend like Brock, but even luckier to have a girl like her share his life.

She traced his jaw line idly with her finger, "And now?"

"Now," Ash finished, "It feels like it's all come full circle, somehow.  Like another new life is starting for me…right….now…"

They kissed, walking into the house.  Delia squealed, "Ooo, it's the maternity ward for you soon for _certain_, dear!  Let me see if I've still got anything for you to wear left, oh no, none of that will do, it's _sooo out of date!  We must go shopping before you leave for home!"_

"Moommm….quit it!"

"Now, Ash, be nice to your mother.  You owe her after that scare over the island," Misty giggled as the door swung quietly shut behind them.

****

**Well, well!  It looks like the more some things change, the more some things stay the same, eh dear reader?  Perhaps there's some similarities between the world of Pokèmon and your own after all!  Still, with all the warm feelings in their hearts, we all know the Ketchum family hasn't entirely forgotten Giovanni's strange and mysterious past.  What secrets could the future hold?  And how about the collective futures of our many friends' families?  Could Jesse and James really be good at running a honest Pokèmon Gym?  Will Brock and Duplica's childbirth go off without a hitch?  And most of all, will Ash and Misty finally tie the knot…or are strange and unseen forces even now conspiring against their holy matrimony?  Oooo….*Ahem*, sorry, got a little carried away there.**

**Hey, the Narrator is supposed to make it sound exciting!  You will tune in…err, read about, umm, … look for?…another exciting adventure in the _future _world….of Pokèmon!!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**To Be Continued…?**


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